The Guardian

Pret sales top £1bn for first time amid expansion

Pret a Manger has said it notched up more than £1bn in global sales for the first time last year as the chain ramped up its expansion overseas.

Despite a recent furore over axing a popular subscripti­on service, customers across the globe flocked to the chain.

The company said £1 in every £4 spent at Pret is now outside the UK after it opened a record 81 new shops in 2023, more than half of them in overseas markets such as Canada, India, Greece and Spain.

Pret made significan­t gains in the US, where it opened a string of new sites on the east coast.

It reported worldwide system sales of £1.1bn, up 22%, in 2023, which helped to drive a 12% rise in underlying profits to £166m and saw the group meet its target to double the size of the business three years early.

In July, the chain angered customers by axing its Club Pret subscripti­on service, almost four years after the deal was launched in the UK.

The £360-a-year subscripti­on perk, including 20% off its food offering, was ditched in favour of 50% off up to five coffees a day, at a cost of £10 a month. At the same time, Pret revealed that the price of its signature 100% organic arabica filter coffee would drop to 99p, and its all-butter croissant would fall to £1.99.

Pret said sales of its cheaper, filter coffee had surged by 60% during August when compared with June after the changes.

Despite breaking the £1bn mark, Pret said sales growth had more than halved to 10% in more recent figures for the first half of 2024.

Pret, which is owned by the German conglomera­te JAB Holding, said comparable same-store sales growth also fell to 3% in the six months to 30 June, against the 15% recorded over last year.

Pret’s chief executive, Pano Christou, said: “We set ourselves some tough targets to get Pret going again after the pandemic, and we have delivered. The fact that £1 in every £4 is now spent outside the UK is both an achievemen­t and an opportunit­y for our business. It shows how big the appetite is from customers all over the world for Pret’s menu.”