Unlock the Editor’s Digest free of charge
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
Pret A Manger’s gross sales surged above £1bn final yr because the UK sandwich chain ramped up enlargement in worldwide markets.
The corporate stated its international franchise and personal retailer gross sales in 2023 rose by a fifth to £1.1bn in contrast with the earlier yr. Adjusted core revenue was £166mn, up 12 per cent on 2022.
Pret, which now operates greater than 690 shops of which 30 per cent are outdoors the UK, additionally reported a ten per cent enhance in gross sales to £569mn for the primary six months of 2024.
The expansion comes as Pret aggressively opens outdoors the UK, increasing into 5 new markets together with India and Spain in 2023 and additional into Cyprus and South Africa this yr, including as much as a complete of 18 markets.
It had the quickest enlargement in India, the place it opened 15 shops in Mumbai and Delhi inside 12 months, whereas a brand new franchise cope with Dallas Worldwide accomplished in February is boosting its presence within the US, it stated.
The group additionally stated it hit its 2021 goal of doubling the dimensions of the enterprise by 2026 — three years forward of the schedule.
“We set ourselves some robust targets to get Pret going once more after the pandemic, and we’ve got delivered,” stated Pret chief govt Pano Christou in a press release.
“The truth that £1 in each £4 is now spent outdoors the UK is each an achievement and a possibility for our enterprise,” he stated.
Pret stated in July it will finish its subscription providing of as much as 5 free drinks a day and a 20 per cent low cost on meals for £30 monthly, which was used 63.1mn instances globally in 2023 — up from 57.9mn in 2022.
Whereas it stated it will cost £10 for a subscription for half-price drinks, adjustments to the favored providing sparked a backlash amongst UK customers.
“All through 2023, Pret confronted headwinds which have impacted each gross sales and profitability, resembling continued industrial motion within the UK and Europe, meals inflation and volatility in buyer demand pushed by the rise of value of residing typically,” it stated.
“The enterprise has managed to soak up a lot of those elevated value pressures. Nevertheless, in step with the market general, it has been needed to extend costs.”
