Pret a Manger

Jeffrey Hyman[8] founded the first Pret a Manger in London on 21 October 1983.[9] The first Pret A Manger shop opened in Hampstead, London, in 1984.[10][11] The name Prêt à Manger (French pronunciation: ​[pʁɛt‿a mɑ̃ʒe], ready to eat ) was based on prêt-à-porter, French for "ready-to-wear" clothing.

Opening in June 1983, the company traded at 58 Hampstead High Street for 18 months[12] at which time takings had dropped to below break-even point and the company went into liquidation. The name and visual branding was purchased from the company liquidator David Rubin by college friends Sinclair Beecham and Julian Metcalfe.[13]

Beecham and Metcalfe started a new operation, using the Pret A Manger name purchased from the former company's liquidator.[14] They opened their first Pret A Manger in July 1986, located at 75b Victoria Street in London. Beecham and Metcalfe met while studying at university.[15]

The pair developed the chain's menu of handmade natural food, prepared in shop kitchens, and they remain significant shareholders in the company.[16]

In 1995, Metcalfe and Beecham set up the Pret Foundation Trust with the aim of alleviating poverty in the UK.[17] The Trust receives donations from the sale of products and collection boxes in shops. The donations fund Pret's "Charity Run" vans which deliver unsold food to homeless shelters at the end of each day.[18]

The first shop outside of London was opened on Broad Street, New York, in 2000.[17] In 2016, there were 74 Pret shops in the United States.[19]

In 2001, McDonald's bought a 33% non-controlling stake in the company,[20] which they sold in 2008 to the private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital.[21][22]

The company opened its first shop in France in 2012,[17] and had a total of 19 shops in France in 2016.[19]

In June 2016, the company opened an all-vegetarian branch in Soho, London, which was popular enough to lead to a second all-veggie branch in the Shoreditch neighbourhood.[23]

In 2016, its group sales were £776 million.[19]

On 29 May 2018, JAB Holding Company announced that it would acquire Pret A Manger from Bridgepoint.[24][25] The acquisition was completed in September 2018.[26]

In May 2019, Pret bought rival chain Eat for an undisclosed sum - originally planning to convert many branches into Veggie Pret shops.[27]

On 27 August 2020, the company announced that it would cut 2,890 jobs[28] from its UK workforce (more than a third of the current employees). The primary reason given was a severe downturn in trade during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most jobs would be lost from shops with 90 roles lost in the company support centre.[29]

Pret A Manger has been cited as being particularly vigorous in extracting affective labour from its employees.[40] Affective labour (or emotional labour)[41] is work which involves manipulating a person's emotional state.

Pret A Manger demands go beyond traditional requirements for fast-food workers (such as courtesy, efficiency, and reliability) to such tasks as having "presence", demonstrating a quirky sense of fun, and exhibiting behaviour consistent with being inwardly happy with oneself.[42] Pret A Manger uses mystery shoppers to ensure that employees deploy markers of a positive emotional state.[40][43] Employees who exhibit markers of latent sadness face consequences such as not having a bonus.[40][43] This has led to some criticism of the company for over-reaching[40][41][44] while drawing praise from right-wing commentators and other business owners for its business practices.[43][45]

In response to labour issues within the company, the Pret A Manger Staff Union was established in 2012 as an independent union with its principal demand being made around calls for a Living Wage.[46] Andrej Stopa, the founder of the union, was later sacked from his Pret branch.[47]

In late 2015, a 17-year-old girl collapsed and needed emergency medical care after a "life-threatening" reaction to sesame, which was present in a Pret product despite an absence of suitable allergen labelling on the packaging. The girl's mother, a doctor, contacted Pret a Manger and was told the allergen was not mentioned on the product, so she cautioned them that "other serious adverse incidents could easily occur".[48] A woman almost died following a reaction to a baguette in October 2015, despite the patient's family warning Pret A Manger the firm did not label products with allergy information.[49]

In July 2016, 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died from an allergic reaction to sesame after eating a Pret sandwich, the packaging of which did not list sesame as an ingredient, but which nevertheless contained some.[50][51] Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, the girl's father, said, "When my mother called and told me that the baguette contained sesame, I was taken aback ... I was completely horrified. It was their fault ... I was stunned that a big food company like Pret could mislabel a sandwich and this could cause my daughter to die." The lawyer for the family said a photograph, taken at the store eight days after the girl's death, indicated no sticker warning concerning allergens was on the packages.[52][48] The coroner said the labelling was inadequate.[53]

In 2017, 42-year-old Celia Marsh died from an allergic reaction to Pret a Manger products. A product, claimed by Pret to be dairy-free, contained traces of dairy. Pret a Manger blamed a supplier.[54] The supplier, CoYo, disputed the allegation[55] and maintains Pret a Manger hampered its investigations by refusing to reveal the batch number of the affected product.[56]