How refusing to be beige made Jason’s Sourdough the UK’s third-biggest bread brand

Even fourth-generation bakers make mistakes – especially when it comes to sourdough. But while your average bread-baking mishap might leave you with a dense and inedible loaf, one of Jason Geary’s errors became the basis of the recipe for his first Ciabattin loaf.

“We were working with a French chef who said it looked like a ciabatta in a tin,” says Geary, the CEO of Geary’s Bakeries and founder of Jason’s Sourdough, which he launched six years ago. Crucially, it was far more convenient than either sourdough or ciabatta had been in their traditional boule or baguette forms.

“It’s a bit crazy, the UK, and people want convenience,” he explains. “What we got right is we created a very convenient shape that makes it easy to make sandwiches, you can bang it in your toaster, you can use it for breakfast.”

The launch in early 2020 came just before lockdown, when the country’s love affair with sourdough went into overdrive. That was swiftly followed by a wave of health-conscious consumers beginning to shun ultra-processed foods.

“It’s been a snowball effect,” says Geary, who has watched the brand climb rapidly to become the UK’s third-biggest bread brand, overtaking Kingsmill in The Grocer’s 2025 Top Products Survey.

That has been spurred by the opening of a new factory in 2025 Sales soared 114% in the year to almost £80m, according to our Top Products Survey. Geary is now aiming to more than double brand retail sales value on Jason’s Sourdough again within three years. “Is it realistic? I think it’s a push, but yes it is realistic,” he says.

At the newest Jason’s Sourdough bakery in Glenfield, Leicestershire, Geary’s passion is on full display as he stands among vats of bubbling sourdough starter at different stages of maturity.

He frequently darts across the factory floor to check the production line, as boules of Majestic Malted emerge from the ovens to be halved, sliced and packed into red paper bags. One boule makes it onto the conveyor belt upside down, and he breaks off from the group to right it.

So what is the secret to its popularity? “People are buying more artisanal and craft products – it’s the same across a lot of categories. For us, it started quite a few years back, where people were getting into higher-quality bread, more health-conscious bread and the snowball is getting bigger and bigger.”

Disrupting a decline

The rise of Jason’s Sourdough comes at a time of significant upheaval in bread. Roberts Bakery was rescued from administration in October last year by Boparan Private Office, the private investment group of Ranjit Singh Boparan, who also founded 2 Sisters Food Group.

Then came the news that heavyweights Hovis (–33.1%) and Kingsmill (–33.9%) had each lost around a third of their value sales in the 2025 Top Products Survey. As a result of their ongoing struggles, the CMA last month approved Associated British Foods’ proposed merger with Hovis, after finding ABF’s Allied Bakeries, which produces Kingsmill, would otherwise close. It’s been a long time coming, says Geary.

“For 15 years, there’s been overcapacity in plant bakeries. At the end of the day, there was only a certain amount of volume within the bread industry, and you’d got these four or five plant bakers. Supermarkets were just playing volume for lower prices, which drove the prices right down.”

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Jason's Sourdough Crumpets launched last year

Source: Jason's Sourdough

Jason's Sourdough toasties in ham hock & cheddar and three cheese

Source: Jason's Sourdough

Jason's Sourdough Ciabattin range

Source: Jason's Sourdough

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To sidestep the problems in the wider market, Geary is focusing on the continued expansion of its offer beyond loaves. The range already boasted Ciabattin, boules and rolls, before it unveiled Sourdough Crumpets in September followed by ready-to-heat toasties in October. Its toasties and hot rolls have since become a staple on British Airways’ onboard food menus, and they’re being trialled in Tesco’s hot food fixture.

“The market needed disruption, really. The door was open for somebody to start thinking about bread other than the core, everyday products,” says Geary.

“I looked out into the market, and the fixture was very beige, it was a bit dull, a bit drab. It didn’t matter what bakery it was, it was the same colours.”

Geary decided he wanted his brand to echo his personality and sense of style. That has led Jason’s to use a different bold colour for each SKU: purple for grains and seeds Ciabattin, green for wholemeal. It’s a visual identity that is distinctly Geary’s own, so much so that when the brand unveiled its first TV campaign last year, Geary and his signature glasses had a starring role.

With the market clearly ripe for innovation, Geary is clear he simply had the right idea at the right time: “When we launched the brand, it was never the case that I was sitting there going: ‘I want to be big’ or ‘I want to get into the top five and then the top three or the top two’ or whatever. It was never, ever, ever about that. I’m passionate about quality products. That’s my driver. Nothing else. It’s all about the quality of products.”

Jason’s Sourdough is not without its critics. Chief among them is the Real Bread Campaign, which has criticised the company’s use of fermented wheat flour in its starter because it can be used as a preservative.

“Yes, we’ve got fermented wheat flour. We’ve never hidden it,” he says. “For us, it was about giving people options. We offer a range of breads that is sourdough. It’s got no yeast in there. And the ingredients have gone from nine, 10 ingredients to four or five ingredients, depending what the loaf is.”

It is that focus on the ingredients that he believes will stand Jason’s in good stead. “Bigger’s not always better,” he says. “We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing and keep up the quality.”