Global expansion boosts Pret sales to £1bn – UK-based coffee chain opened 81 stores overseas last year

Pret A Manger’s global sales rose to more than £1bn last year as it sought international expansion.

The UK-based coffee and sandwich chain said £1 of every £4 spent by customers now comes from outside the UK as sales soar 22 per cent in 2023.

A total of 81 stores were opened abroad, including in India and Canada, as well as in Greece and Spain.

Privately held Pret said it had opened more stores in 2023 than in any other year in its history, including 15 stores in India.

The stores have helped the group, founded by Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham in 1986, double in size three years ahead of its target, with profits rising 12 per cent to £166m last year.

Pret A Manger chief executive Pano Christou said: ‘We set ourselves some tough targets to get Pret back up and running after the pandemic, and we’ve delivered.

‘The fact that £1 in every £4 is now spent outside the UK is both an achievement and an opportunity for our business.

“This demonstrates the huge interest that Pret’s menu has from customers around the world. Looking ahead, our recipe for success is to focus on doing what Pret does best: creating delicious, freshly made food for our customers, using only the high-quality ingredients that we are proud to have in our kitchens.”

He said he had been investing more in new recipes, such as custom sauces for satay and shawarma, based on soy and coconut.

Around 87 per cent of openings have taken place outside London since January 2023.

Many office workers in the UK and elsewhere continue to spend part of the week at home, which is affecting demand at Pret outlets in city centres.

Since the pandemic, business has expanded to other areas, such as the suburbs, which are not as reliant on white-collar workers. But there are signs that this customer base is returning to its office hubs.

And New York is now Pret’s overseas capital, with the biggest sales after London. The company signed a deal with a new franchise partner, Dallas International, in February. This has helped accelerate growth across the US, with ten stores planned on the East Coast by 2026.

Six stores are set to open in Scotland in the medium term, but sales growth has slowed in the first half of 2024, from 3% to 15% last year.

Clive Black, an analyst at investment group Shore Capital, said the update was “certainly about raising awareness that the company is alive and well, perhaps ahead of some broader capital event or organisational change, let’s see.”

Pret has more than 690 stores and employs around 12,500 people worldwide. It has a workforce of 9,000 in the UK.