Pret Manger targets value-conscious diners with premium meal deals

Pret A Manger is betting that shoppers will pay more for quality, even as household budgets remain tight and supermarket meal deals stay cheaper. Chief executive Pano Christou said the chain sees an opening for “the best quality meal deal on the market,” with fresh products made in its kitchens every day, and it has begun testing offers at different price points, including reported trials in the £6 to £7 range.

That puts Pret well above Tesco’s reported £3.85 Clubcard meal deal and £4.25 for non-Clubcard customers, and above Waitrose’s reported £5 Food to Go offer. The strategy is a direct response to a customer mood shaped by the cost-of-living squeeze and by years of criticism that Pret had become too expensive, including the label “Pret-flation” in 2023. Rather than compete only on price, the chain is trying to position itself as premium but value-led, arguing that some diners still want convenience without feeling they have overpaid.

The financial backdrop is mixed. Pret reported a pre-tax loss of £525.2 million for the year to January 2 after a £552.9 million non-cash write-down linked to owner JAB’s reassessment of the business. Yet the chain also said it passed £1 billion in global sales for the first time in 2023, with worldwide system sales of £1.1 billion, up 22% year on year. That momentum has since cooled. In the first half of 2024, system sales growth slowed to 10%, while comparable same-store sales growth fell to 3%, down from 15% over the previous year.

Pret’s reliance on commuter traffic makes the timing especially important. Office patterns have not fully returned to pre-pandemic norms, and while Fridays in the office have been slowly recovering, attendance still trails midweek. Job-ad data in early 2024 suggested fewer employers were advertising Friday work-from-home arrangements, but the shift has been gradual rather than complete. During the pandemic, when London offices emptied, Pret cut staff hours by about 20% and sought support from landlords.

The chain is now adapting its estate to that more mixed pattern of trade. It has been opening larger-format stores with more dining space, including in Broughty Ferry near Dundee and Maidenhead, to draw in customers who may stay longer than the old commuter grab-and-go model allowed. That matters because Pret said £1 in every £4 spent by its customers is now spent outside the UK, after it opened a record 81 new shops in 2023, more than half of them overseas. The company said it had already reached its goal of doubling the business three years early. The challenge now is whether premium convenience can remain a winning formula when even affluent shoppers are trading down.