Pret a Manger plans to double in size after securing £100m in fresh funding, the sandwich chain said on Wednesday.
The funding is being provided by the chain’s owner, Luxembourg-based German conglomerate JAB Holdings, and one of its co-founders, Sinclair Beecham.
The cash will be used to open more than 200 UK shops by the end of 2023, with a focus on regional and suburban areas, transport hubs and motorways, and expand into five as yet-unnamed new countries. It expects to create around 3,000 jobs as part of the expansion.
Pret a Manger, which JAB acquired from private equity firm Bridgepoint in 2018 for £1.5bn, was hit hard by the pandemic. Lockdowns kept workers and shoppers at home, and footfall in city centres plummeted. Revenues in 2020 slumped to £299m from £708m a year previously, while the operating loss widened to £256.5m from £26m.
JAB pumped in £185m during the pandemic to help the chain weather the downturn. Pret also launched new services, including a range of supermarket products and a delivery menu.
However, Pret said on Wednesday that its recovery had “gathered pace” over the last month, and trade was now approaching pre-pandemic levels. It also said it was making a profit.
Pano Christou, chief executive, said: “It has been an incredibly tough two years, but we have a big opportunity ahead. Last year we delivered more change than in thirty years of Pret’s history. As we move into the next phase of our transformation, we want to keep the same pace of innovation but use it to drive new growth.”
Pret was founded in 1986 by Beecham and Julian Metcalfe, who went on to set up Asia-inspired chain Itsu. Pret currently has around 550 shops in Britain, the US, France, Dubai and Hong Kong and employs around 8,000 people, 6,400 of which are in the UK.
