Pret returns to profitable operations with strongest sales outside London | Pret a Manger

The sandwich chain Pret a Manger has returned to worthwhile operations after two years during which it misplaced a cumulative £570m.

Asserting buying and selling figures for the primary six months of 2022, the corporate mentioned its restoration had “continued and accelerated”, with half-year revenues greater than tripling yr on yr to £357.8m, serving to it return to profitability in March and changing into cashflow constructive since Could.

Demand in Pret’s residence UK enterprise has bounced again, though the coronavirus pandemic has modified the sample of gross sales, with the strongest development exterior London.

There have been “notably sturdy regional and suburban gross sales”, it mentioned, though a 3rd of its 442 UK outlets are nonetheless within the capital. After the opening of 27 outlets this yr it now employs 8,700 folks within the UK, whereas throughout all of its operations it employs 11,500.

The chief govt, Pano Christou, mentioned the corporate “grew quickest in a few of the locations the place we solely had a handful of Pret outlets earlier than”.

Pret’s gross sales slumped throughout the pandemic as employees had been compelled to remain out of city and metropolis centres by lockdowns. It made a lack of £226m for 2021, after a £343m loss in 2020.

The chain’s reliance on metropolis foot visitors was underlined as soon as extra by current rail strikes, with buying and selling in its Metropolis of London and Canary Wharf shops falling to 62% of pre-Covid ranges within the week the strikes started. Christou on Monday known as for unions and prepare corporations to agree a deal to keep away from additional rail strikes, saying it brought about a “large” hit to commerce.

“It was an enormous detrimental impression on enterprise for positive,” Christou instructed PA Media. “Even the times in between had been quite a bit quieter as a result of providers didn’t totally get better.”

Nevertheless, the corporate, which opened in 1986, has guess that customers will return to comfort meals en masse after the top of pandemic restrictions in its main markets. It plans to double the scale of the enterprise throughout the subsequent 5 years, together with by means of worldwide expansions similar to a launch in India introduced final week. The Indian shops will probably be run by Reliance Industries, the fossil gas and retail conglomerate owned by the billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

Throughout the pandemic, Pret has been compelled to name on £200m of monetary help from shareholders together with JAB Holding Firm, a Luxembourg funding car for Germany’s billionaire Reimann household who additionally personal manufacturers starting from Dr Pepper drinks and Krispy Kreme doughnuts to fragrance from Calvin Klein and Burberry.

Since September, Pret has signed offers to open outlets in Canada, Eire, Spain and Portugal, along with the India deal. In addition to increasing geographically, Pret has been pushing into digital gross sales, together with a espresso subscription that may be purchased on-line. There are actually greater than 1,000,000 subscribers per week, up from 667,000 in 2021, Pret mentioned.

Christou additionally pledged additional worldwide development, saying: “The chance now’s for us to take that development and apply it internationally.”