Pret a Manger sales reached £1.1 billion (€1.3 billion) for the first time in 2023 as the UK sandwich chain expanded overseas.
Pret revealed that £1 (€1.19) of every £4 (€4.75) that customers spent on its sandwiches and coffee now came from outside the UK.
The chain owned by Luxembourg-headquartered German conglomerate JAB Holding opened 81 new shops in 2023. More than 50 per cent were located Canada, India, and Greece and Spain, where Pret has outlets in Madrid, Barcelona and Lanzarote.
There was also “significant” progress in the US, where Pret has opened new sites on the East Coast.
Although the business remained “proudly British-based and British-built” and would continue to expand across the UK, the company revealed that a major part of Pret’s future growth plan was international.
The 2023 results had helped to drive a 12 per cent rise in underlying profits to £166 million (€197.1 million), which allowed the group to meet its target of doubling the volume of business three years ahead of schedule.
“We set ourselves some tough targets to get Pret going again after the pandemic, and we have delivered,” chief executive Pano Christou said.
Nevertheless, the company was aware that although 2024’s first half sales of £569 million (€675.7 million) were 10 per cent up on 2023, this was approximately half of the sales growth during the same period last year.
Comparable same-store sales growth had also fallen to 3 per cent during the first half of 2024, compared with 15 per cent in 2023.
