Pret A Manger sales rise above £1bn

Pret A Manger rang up £1 billion in sales for the first time last year as it expanded in international markets, with £1 in every £4 now spent outside the UK.
The sandwich chain, which has grown its global portfolio to 690 shops, opened 81 new branches across the world last year, of which more than half were outside the UK, in countries including the United States, Canada, India, Greece and Spain.
Its growth in India has been rapid as it opened 15 shops in Mumbai and Delhi within 12 months, while its joint venture with Dallas International has driven sales in the US, particularly New York, where it generates the highest sales after London.
Its growing global footprint contributed to a 22 per cent increase in global sales to £1.1 billion last year, pushing adjusted profits 12 per cent higher to £166 million. It has also led to Pret achieving its 2021 target of doubling the size of the business by 2026 — three years ahead of schedule.
“We set ourselves some tough targets to get Pret going again after the pandemic, and we have delivered,” Pano Christou, its chief executive said. “The fact that £1 in every £4 is now spent outside the UK is both an achievement and an opportunity for our business.”
Momentum has continued, with sales in the opening six months of this year up 10 per cent against the same period of 2023, at £569 million.
Notwithstanding its focus on growing internationally Pret said the business “remains proudly British-based and British-built”.
In the UK, it has agreed a partnership to open six new branches in Scotland; it also has ten shops in Ireland. Since January 2023, more than four-fifths of the company’s new openings have been outside London.
Pret’s road to success has not come without challenges including the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, who died on a British Airways flight to Nice in 2016 after eating an olive and tapenade baguette from a branch of Pret at Heathrow.
An inquest into her death was told that the company had been warned of a possible allergic reaction to its products on nine occasions before her death but had failed to act.
In 2017 Celia Marsh, 42, also died after suffering an anaphylactic reaction when she ate a flatbread from Pret.
The chain, which this year announced it would scrap its coffee subscription offer, said it had reduced prices on some of its most popular items, having previously pushed up prices to mitigate rising costs.
Pret was founded by Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham, who opened their first outlet on Victoria Street in London in 1986. In 2018, it was bought by JAB Holding Company, the German conglomerate behind Krispy Kreme doughnuts, for £1.5 billion, from Bridgepoint. It employs 12,500 people.
The company also said shareholders had raised £250 million of new capital this month to improve liquidity and reduce certain banking facilities.