Key Points
- Capital Expansion: The viral dessert brand Get Baked has announced it will open its first permanent store in London this summer, with a targeted launch date in July.
- Prime Location: The new branch will be situated in Covent Garden, following the brand’s successful temporary pop-up residency at Fortnum & Mason in late 2024.
- Leeds Closure: The expansion announcement comes only weeks after the shock permanent closure of the bakery’s flagship store in Headingley, Leeds, on 28 February 2026.
- Financial Pressures: Business owner Rich Myers cited unsustainable financial pressures for the Leeds closure, specifically a “significant rise in rents and rates” demanded upon the expiration of their commercial lease.
- Operational Comparison: Myers disclosed that the projected new lease costs for the suburban Headingley site would have exceeded the rent paid for the company’s city-centre premises in Manchester.
- Digital and Physical Shift: While the original physical footprint in West Yorkshire has been dissolved, Get Baked continues to operate its physical site in Manchester alongside a highly lucrative nationwide e-commerce delivery operation.
- New Concept Teased: The upcoming London establishment is expected to introduce a “new concept, littered with nostalgia” whilst continuing to showcase its famous heavy-layered confectioneries.
Leeds (The Leeds Times) May 19, 2026 – A popular bakery that closed its Leeds store earlier this year has announced that it will be opening a new shop in London. Get Baked, which has achieved widespread internet fame through its viral social media presence and giant multi-layered desserts, confirmed it will welcome customers to a permanent branch in Covent Garden this coming summer, with a potential opening scheduled for July. The strategic move into the capital marks a significant shift in the company’s retail footprint, occurring just two months after the establishment permanently shut the doors of its original flagship site in Headingley on 28 February 2026. The company stated that it closed its Headingley store due to a “significant rise in rents and rates” after their long-term commercial lease had come to an end, rendering continued operations in the Leeds student suburb financially unviable.
Why did Get Baked close its flagship Headingley store?
The decision to cease operations at the original North Lane site in Leeds, which had been open for five years, was dictated by escalating commercial property costs that the business owner deemed unreasonable for the location. As reported by Nicola Roy, Spare Time writer for the Daily Express, owner Rich Myers took to the social media platform Instagram to confirm the closure, stating that
“being busy is no longer enough” to guarantee the survival of modern hospitality sites. Myers elaborated on the financial specifics of the commercial property market, explaining that the expenditure required to secure the building under a new agreement made no financial sense for the brand.
According to statements published by the Daily Express, Myers stated that:
“The new lease would mean that the price we lay out in Headingley would exceed the amount we pay for our site in Manchester City centre, which for the style of business that we are, is just madness.”
Myers further explained the systemic pressures currently facing independent food and beverage operators across the United Kingdom, noting that businesses are being forced
“to squeeze so hard to the point where there’s no real fun left.”
Under these conditions, the margins of the physical retail shop meant that record sales weeks were becoming “less of a joy, and more of a necessity” to cover the baseline overheads.
What are the details of the new London store opening?
Despite the contraction of its brick-and-mortar presence in West Yorkshire, the confectionery brand is transitioning directly into the competitive London food market with a permanent retail space.
As reported by Rebecca McCulloch, Trainee Multimedia Reporter for MyLondon, Rich Myers confirmed he is bringing the brand to Covent Garden this summer, teasing a potential opening date of July.
The capital location represents the first standalone southern branch for the northern-founded business.
The move follows a highly publicised commercial trial in the capital two years prior. As detailed by corporate records from the luxury department store Fortnum & Mason, Get Baked held a high-profile residency on the ground floor patisserie counter of their flagship Piccadilly store until 17 October 2024.
The pop-up event, which featured exclusive products like a bespoke ‘Knickerbocker Glory Pie’, resulted in customers queuing around the block, validating the brand’s physical appeal to London consumers and laying the groundwork for the upcoming permanent site in Covent Garden.
For the new venue, Myers has teased a “new concept, littered with nostalgia” that will complement the brand’s established menu of oversized baked items.
How will Get Baked operate moving forward?
The closure of the Leeds shop front does not signal the end of the brand’s overall commercial operations, as the business model relies heavily on decentralised distribution channels.
Writing for the Yorkshire Food Guide, local journalists confirmed that while the site at 3, Gateway House, 15 North Lane in Headingley is permanently closed, the second physical Get Baked branch, located at 1 Stevenson Square in the Northern Quarter of Manchester, remains fully operational.
Furthermore, the brand’s economic viability is heavily sustained by its digital infrastructure. In his public address regarding the structural changes, Myers emphasised that physical footfall at the original location was no longer the primary driver of corporate revenue. As recorded by the Daily Express, Myers stated:
“We are extremely lucky to have a very strong online business. We serve thousands of customers every week delivering desserts all over the country — online is very much the future of GB.”
The e-commerce division utilizes nationwide shipping to distribute the bakery’s signature heavy cakes, pies, cookies, and brownies. According to regional food reports, these online inventory drops regularly sell out within minutes of being released on the company’s website.
Background of the Leeds-founded bakery development
Get Baked was originally founded by Rich Myers in 2011, operating initially as a small-scale delivery venture out of his family kitchen in Leeds.
The brand distinguished itself early on by pioneering an on-demand dessert delivery model aimed at the local university student population.
As detailed in the historical overview provided by The Mirror newspaper, Myers built a dedicated cult following through a combination of indulgent baking and an unconventional, aggressive social media marketing strategy.
The business temporarily ceased operations in 2015 when Myers chose to step away from the industry to focus on his personal mental health, spending six years completely outside of the commercial food sector.
In 2021, Myers engineered a successful commercial comeback, reviving the Get Baked brand via a viral Facebook post and subsequently opening the physical retail shop in Headingley. Shortly after reopening, the business achieved international notoriety during an incident dubbed “Sprinklegate.”
A customer reported the bakery to Trading Standards for utilizing imported American sprinkles that contained E127 (Erythrosine), a food colouring additive restricted in the United Kingdom for use in flour confectionery.
The subsequent regulatory intervention forced Myers to temporarily withdraw the affected goods from sale, sparking a viral internet dispute covered globally by major broadcasting corporations including the BBC and CNN.
The widespread media exposure from “Sprinklegate” significantly accelerated the bakery’s commercial growth, leading to the publication of an official cookbook in 2023, the establishment of the Manchester branch, and the introduction of its most famous product line: “Bruce,” a towering 24-layer chocolate cake weighing over one kilogram per slice.
The iconic cake, inspired by the cinematic adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, was later succeeded by an identical milk and dark chocolate ganache variation named “Bertha,” which serves as the core anchor product for both the brick-and-mortar stores and the nationwide digital shipping platform.
Prediction: How this development can affect the UK hospitality sector and consumers
The relocation of Get Baked from a suburban northern town to the heart of the capital provides a clear indicator of how structural economic shifts are reshaping the British independent hospitality landscape. For independent business operators and northern consumers, this development signals an accelerating trend where rising commercial costs—specifically business rates and localized rent hikes—are driving prominent regional brands out of secondary high streets and forcing them to consolidate into high-density tourist hubs or pure-play e-commerce models.
For the targeted London audience and the Covent Garden retail ecosystem, the arrival of a highly visible, digitally native brand is expected to intensify competition within the artisanal dessert sector. The move demonstrates that viral social media equity can be converted into premium physical real estate, potentially altering how landlords evaluate the viability of prospective commercial tenants. Meanwhile, northern consumers will increasingly have to rely on digital delivery infrastructures to access regional brands that were previously available on their local high streets, as independent operators shift their reliance away from traditional brick-and-mortar footfall in regional towns to mitigate fixed overhead risks.
