Pret A Manger Completes UK Restructuring In Response To Impact Of COVID-19

• Trade across UK shops 60% down YoY– although significant improvement during August

• Number of roles in UK shops reduced by 2,800

• Recovery now clearly underway, averaging c. 7% sales growth each week since July

LONDON, 27th August 2020: Pret A Manger will today complete the restructuring of its UK business, following almost two months of consultations with team members.

Although sales and footfall have started to show clear signs of recovery, Pret sales over the last month stand at where they were around 10 years ago, when the business was considerably smaller. Trade across UK shops remains around 60% down year on year. Weekly sales for Pret UK are averaging around £5 million– the level they were at in August 2010.

To reflect this changed retail environment, the business has been forced to take the difficult decision to reduce the number of roles in its UK shops by 2,800. This follows the decision earlier this summer that 30 shops across the UK would close permanently.

The reduction in roles is a reflection of shorter opening hours, lower transaction levels, and the losses faced by the business in 2020. Significantly, a further 1,000 roles have been preserved thanks to the support of thousands of Pret Team Members to move to a lower level of minimum weekly hours. These hours will be continuously reviewed to reflect levels of sales and footfall during the remainder of 2020 and early 2021. Alongside the reductions in shops, a further 90 roles have been reduced in Pret’s Support Centre teams.

Despite the reduction in trade, Pret is maintaining a much larger number of Team Members in the UK than 10 years ago, encouraged in particular by the growth the business is seeing each week. Since the end of July, weekly sales have grown on average by around 7%, and the company is confident it can continue to build on this growth.

Pret is continuing to transform its business model, bringing Pret to more people, through different channels and in new ways, with further initiatives to be announced in the coming weeks.

Pret’s CEO, Pano Christou, said: “I’m gutted that we’ve had to lose so many colleagues. Although we’re now starting to see a steady but slow recovery, the pandemic has taken away almost a decade of growth at Pret.

“We’ve managed to protect many jobs by making changes to the way we run our shops and the hours we ask Team Members to work. I’m hopeful we’ll be able to review all these changes now that trade is improving again, and I’m encouraged by the improvements we’re seeing every week.

“We’ll soon be announcing a number of big changes to help bring Pret to more people. We’re grateful to the Government for the support they’ve given our sector, and hope that support will continue as long as possible to give Pret time to adjust.”