Meal deals have become a British lunchtime staple, so it was about time food-to-go giant Pret a Manger jumped on the bandwagon.
The chain, known for offering premium, freshly prepared sandwiches, wraps and salads from its more than 500 UK stores, is testing a whopping seven meal deal formats this month.
Covering both breakfast and lunchtime occasions, the deals will be trialled in 70 shops from 16 September. This will then inform a permanent meal deal to be rolled out early next year.
But it’s a crowded market. Pharmacy chain Boots launched the first such promotion (in 1999) with Tesco, Sainsbury’s and other supermarkets soon following suit (though it took Waitrose until 2023) and bringing in enormous footfall with their value-driven offers.
So what’s on the menu? And how can Pret compete?
What’s on the menu?
The formats being trialled by Pret this month include a breakfast croissant and coffee deal, rolling out at various price points from £4 to £5, alongside a three-part lunch deal, which features a drink, crisps and any bread-based sandwich priced between £6 and £7.
Pret is known for being on the pricier end of the market, with a sandwich alone currently priced between £3.70 and £6.25. But the lunchtime meal deal, even sold at the higher £7 price point, would still offer customers a pretty significant saving when adding crisps and a drink to the order.
In comparison, Tesco’s standard meal deal, which includes a main, snack and a drink, is priced at £3.85 with a Clubcard or £4.25 without, while its premium meal deal costs £5.50 with a Clubcard and £6 without. Upmarket retailer Waitrose offers a meal deal for £5.
So clearly Pret will struggle to compete on value. But as its chairman José Cil says: “It’s going to be a better deal, that’s for sure and that’s the point.”
“Price points are important, but value for money takes into account the quality of the food and the experience, the ambience, the service levels. So, our bet here is that we can deliver the best value for money in the UK, especially in Greater London, with the product we have and the service we offer.”
Pret CEO Pano Christou believes it has a “fantastic opportunity to [offer] the best-quality meal deal on the market”.
With meal deals from supermarkets “you’re buying a product that’s been made hundreds of miles away, many days ago”, says Christou. In contrast, Pret will be offering a product that had been made “metres away, minutes ago”.
“The freshness of our ingredients is unparalleled to those others,” he adds.
But freshness and an affordable price point alone might not be enough to set Pret apart from its rivals.
Just last week, food-to-go giant Greggs launched a £5 three-part lunch meal deal, which includes any hot or cold sandwich, salad, pasta or chicken goujons, any drink and a choice from a range of sides.
With many of these products also made fresh in-store, just as Pret does – and with nearly five times more shops in the UK than Pret – competing with cheaper and more widely available meal deals won’t be easy.
Trial and error
However, Pret is coming into the meal deal market with the word “test” very much in mind. It’s clear the sandwich chain won’t be launching a permanent breakfast or lunch deal unless it’s really drawing in the crowds. For a meal deal to work it mustn’t just “give great value” to its existing customers, “it’s also about how we bring new customers in”, says Christou.
Pret is also determined to learn from previous experiments with lunchtime and coffee promotions.
In January 2023, Pret began offering a full-size baguette and crisps or popcorn for £5. However, this was only available as a limited-time offer and did not land a full-time spot on the menu.
Meanwhile its Covid-19 pandemic-era coffee promotion, which offered customers up to five free coffees a day for £30 a month, was repositioned last September and replaced with a new subscription model, as it was, quite simply, uneconomic.
The new offer saw Pret Club subscribers instead paying £5 monthly for 50% off up to five barista-prepared drinks each day, while the 20% discount element on food was scrapped entirely.
And while the watered-down deal left many customers unhappy at the time, it enabled Pret to absorb around £25m of inflation in labour, food, and operational costs.
So Pret is clearly trying to find a meal deal sweet spot. And there’s no reason why it couldn’t work. Indeed, meal deals are already working in other markets.
In France, where Pret launched the ‘Very Good Food’ meal in January – offering a sandwich, dessert and drink or savoury snack for €10.90 (£9.44) – it has so far “done fantastically well and gives us confidence that this is an opportunity to double down on”, said Christou. It’s an especially impressive feat considering the French meal deal has a steeper price point than Pret is trialling in the UK.
For regular Pret customers, a meal deal will be welcomed with open arms – because who wouldn’t want better value for money? But stealing shoppers from rivals who offer a similar proposition at a lower price point won’t be easy.
Innovation has been a renewed focus for Pret of late, with the notable launch of its bigger, more nutrient-packed Super Plates salads in July. And incorporating innovation in its meal deal products will surely be key to truly setting it aside from rivals.
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