Pret A Manger claims it is now profitable after years of hard times. It has shifted its focus from London to regional towns and the suburbs.
The sandwich chain saw sales rise to PS357.8m over the six-month period to June, up 230% from last year when lockdowns crippled the business.
A third of Pret UK shops are located outside London. This includes new locations in Harrogate, Harrogate, and York.
According to the chain, these stores are responsible for most of its recent growth.
Pret, like all hospitality businesses, had to close for prolonged periods during the pandemic. It was forced to move to a take-out model.
The chain claimed it made a profit in March after suffering bruising losses in the amount of PS225.9m (2021) and PS343m (202020).
The firm has opened 27 new shops in the UK since September 2013, mainly outside central London. This brings its total UK shop count to 442.
According to the chain, 36% of its UK stores are now in regional towns and cities.
Pret also stated that it had expanded internationally, with 558 shops and new franchise agreements in India, Spain Portugal, Canada, and Portugal.
Since the pandemic, the chain has been trying to innovate. They launched a subscription service for drinks that initially attracted thousands of complaints from customers about the limited availability of certain beverages.
Pret stated that the service, which allows customers to order up to five hot beverages per day, was used more than a million times per week. This is up from 6667,000 times per week last year.
It also stated that Pret subscribers spend four times more on average with Pret than those who are not.
