Pret a Manger’s sales and earnings jumped in 2024 as the food-to-go business has launched a new strategy to test meal deal formats and expand internationally.
For the year to 2 January 2025, worldwide sales across company-owned and franchise shops reached £1.2bn, up 10% compared with 2023, while adjusted EBITDA grew 36% to £98m.
“2024 was another year of growth for Pret, where we took disciplined decisions to protect sales, despite intense strains on the hospitality industry,” said Pret a Manger CEO Pano Christou.
It comes as a new medium-term strategy will see Pret doubling down on value to grow transactions and increase food-to-go market share.
A tried and tested meal deal
The repositioning of Club Pret, the brand’s coffee subscription, which offers customers 50% off up to five barista-prepared drinks each day for £5 a month, has enabled the business to absorb around £25m of inflation in labour, food, and operational costs.
In a bid to provide more value-driven options, the new strategy includes plans to test multiple meal deal formats. From 16 September, a range of seven test formats will launch in 70 stores, covering both breakfast and lunch occasions.
This will include a croissant and a coffee deal, ranging from £4 to £5, as well as a three-part lunch deal including a drink, crisps and any bread-based sandwich priced between £6 and £7. These will be tested throughout September and will help to advise Pret on how it will move ahead with rolling out permanent options in January.
”I think we have a fantastic opportunity to have the best quality meal deal on the market,” said Christou, who added that the meal deal propositions aimed to offer better value to existing customers while also bringing in new consumers.
When asked if it would be cheaper than Tesco’s meal deal, which sits at £3.85 for Clubcard holders, recently appointed chairman José Cil claimed “it’ll be a better deal, that’s for sure”.
Referencing other brand’s meal deals in the market, Christou added: “You’re buying a product that’s been made hundreds of miles away, many days ago,” adding that Pret’s meal deal would offer a product that had been made “metres away, minutes ago”.
“The freshness of our ingredients is unparalleled to those others”, he added.
However, the meal deal updates were just “an aspect of our multifaceted plan”, Christou said.
Food and coffee innovation will also be a key focus this year and beyond. The Super Plates launch in July, which offers bigger, more nutrient-packed salads, was already driving increased customer visits, particularly in London, according to Pret.
Christou said Super Plates had performed 20% to 30% better in terms of units sold than Pret had originally planned for, with their presence increasing from 50% of stores to 85% this month.
Pret’s new strategy also has a focus on expansion. The chain currently operates 717 shops globally, with 500 of these in the UK. One of its biggest focuses for the next three years is to expand further in the US, where it operates 70 sites and is now led by recently appointed food industry veteran Felipe Athayde.
There will be a particular focus on travel hubs and city centres, with five locations to open at JFK Airport late this year and next year.
It follows news last week that UK & Europe MD Clare Clough is to step down after 15 years with the business.
Christou confirmed that an external successor was to be announced in the “short term”.
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