Pret A Manger sales top £1bn after US expansion

Pret A Manger’s sales have jumped above £1bn for the first time after benefiting from a significant expansion in the US.

The coffee and sandwich chain unveiled a 22pc surge in global turnover in 2023, which rose from £900m to £1.1bn.

This increase is largely owing to Pret’s strategy to open a raft of new stores overseas, including on the east coast of America, as well as in Greece, India and Spain.

As part of its latest results announcement, Pret has claimed that £1 in every £4 spent by its customers now comes from outside the UK.

Bosses said that New York, where it runs dozens of stores, is its most lucrative foreign outpost, with sales there second only to London.

Pret is targeting more than 10 new openings on the east coast by 2026.

Meanwhile, in the UK, it remains focused on its strategy of opening new suburban stores.

Its latest figures reveal that 90pc of all new UK openings since January 2023 were outside London.

Over this period, revenues across its UK operations rose 10pc in the first half of 2024 to £569m, up from £518m in the same period last year.

However, its expansion overseas also encountered teething issues in Israel, where it recently called off plans to open 40 franchise stores owing to “significant ongoing travel restrictions”.

Bosses said this meant “our teams have not been able to conduct the checks and training needed to set up Pret in a new market”.

It came after Pret was targeted by pro-Palestine protesters over its decision to open in Israel.

‘We have delivered’

Pret also revealed that shareholders pumped £250m into the business last year to help pay down debts and improve liquidity.

This followed a boardroom shake-up in the spring which saw the installation of a new chairman, Konrad Meyer, and the return of Sinclair Beecham, the businessman who co-founded the chain with Julian Metcalfe in 1986.

In recent months, Pret has been pushing to lower prices after the chain was accused of profiteering during the cost of living crisis.

However, the chain was recently subject to fresh scrutiny after scrapping its “free coffee” subscription, which offered customers five barista-made drinks a day for a monthly £30 fee.

In its place, Pret now offers half price drinks for a monthly fee of £10.

Launched at the height of the pandemic, the subscription originally cost £20.

However, it grew steadily more expensive over the years that followed, rising to £25 in February 2022 and then to £30 in April last year.

Pret said that more than 63m people used the subscription in 2023.

Pano Christou, chief executive at Pret, said: “I am so proud of the progress we have made over the last three years. We set ourselves some tough targets to get Pret going again after the pandemic, and we have delivered.”