Pret a Manger

Pret a Manger (Europe) Ltd

1 Hudson’s Place
Victoria
London SW1V 1PZ

Telephone: 020 7827 8000 Summary

Fax: 020 7827 8787 Since it opened in London 1986, Pret a Manger has become firmly established as one of the leading sandwich
Email: recruitment@pret.com shop chains and a byword for high quality, freshly prepared food. A private company, Pret owns 200 shops
www.pret.com in the UK, 20 in New York and 10 in Hong Kong. Pret employs nearly 4,000 people, 3,887 in the UK.
Pret continues to expand. It opened 32 new shops in 2008, 23 in the UK, and recruits new Team Members
every week. Turnover for 2008 is projected to be £222m with an operating profit before interest and
tax of £17.7m.

About the organisation

Pret opened in London in 1986 when college friends Sinclair Beecham and Julian Metcalfe insisted on making
Pay and Benefits ‘proper’ sandwiches using natural, preservative-free ingredients. The two had little business experience
but were rather good at creating the sort of food they craved but couldn’t find anywhere else.
Training and Development
Good, natural food is sacred to Pret. So too is friendly service, and a pleasant environment. Its sandwiches
Career Development and other offerings are freshly made throughout the day in each and every Pret kitchen – one of the things
that make Pret special.
Working Conditions
Pret has 110 shops in London and 90 in the regions and airports. The traditional format of the ‘City takeaway’
Company Culture is changing and many new shops have a more café or coffee lounge feel, appealing to tourists and shoppers.
The airport shops, including Heathrow Terminals 3 and 5 and Gatwick South, are massive operations. Pret
is now ‘motoring’ in the US, with a slightly different and focused offering aimed at healthy women and hungry
men, which roughly translated means more salads and more meat.

Biggest plus What you do see in all Pret restaurants are the words ‘Just Made.’ Pret slavishly sticks to a few key principles:
A great team-based culture, a real passion for food. simple, freshly prepared food on the premises, using stylish ingredients you would recognise from your
own kitchen. The Pret larder has been extended, with no fewer than 117 new products launched this year,
Greatest challenge and now includes offerings such as vitamin drinks, fresh carrot juice and Viennese-style luxury coffees.
Managing to avoid changing it as it grows. Pret is sensitive to price points too, introducing products below £2.50 such as slim baguettes. “Whatever
your pocket is, Pret will be able to look after you,” says chief executive Clive Schlee. »
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 Pret a Manger
Pret now has private equity firm Bridgepoint as its principal shareholder. “They have been extremely respectful of the
Pret culture and the Pret brand. We’ve not been pushed into anything that doesn’t fit with the Pret story and our measured
rate of expansion,” says Schlee. “The behaviours we
Company Culture expect of Pret people
Pret has built a strong culture that its people are really proud of. The company is determined to maintain, not change are passion, clear talking
it. As the business grows, it is like splitting a cell, with the same shop-opening ceremony, the same recruitment policies, and teamworking”
and the same values. At the core is a deep respect for the motivation of Team Members, getting up early, community
and respect.
(Andrea Wareham,
director of People)
“There are three behaviours that we expect to see in all Pret people,” says Andrea Wareham, director of People. “These
are passion, clear talking and teamworking. We have an almost religious duty to develop all Team Members on the
way up. Each day you can climb another rung on the ladder.”

‘The Team’ means a close integration of the shops and head office. Twice a year every Head Office employee spends
two days (‘Buddy days’) in a shop, wearing the uniform, working in teams and attending social events.
Pret has its own in-house ‘ideas department’. Online idea submissions are reviewed each month from the
To work at Pret you must have not only a respect for but also a real passion for food. “When people join we want to thousands of bright ideas put forward, aimed at helping Pret become a better, kinder, easier place to work
see a massive love of people and of food,” says Danilo Martinelli, general manager of the Victoria shop. “And you and shop. Prizes this year include an expenses-paid trip to New York for an entire shop. There are two
won’t get them caring about sandwiches if they don’t care about people.” Pret people really ‘own’ their sandwiches. categories. The best service idea to Wow! customers, which has seen dance classes for the queues; raffles;
and free coffee and sandwich for any customer wearing the day’s designated accessory, for example a
‘The Pret Recipe’ is in fact an articulation of how it wants its people to run the shops, and how to get the wheels turning. red tie or scarf! There’s also a category for best new food product idea, with Pret staff voting on which go
“We want to get a focus on getting the people-products-service right, then sales will follow,” says Schlee. into the range. These have led to the introduction of luxury hot drinks, or ‘Velvet Jolts’; fresh carrot juice;
and smaller baguettes at a £1.50 price point.
Pret is quite transparent in all that it does, from food ingredients to promotion opportunities to reporting financial
performance. Pret is also renowned for its enormously diverse culture. It employs many different nationalities, and Pay and Benefits
highly values the cosmopolitan flavour this gives the company. “We pay our hardworking staff as much as we can afford rather than as little as we can get away with,”
says Wareham. Pay is based more on you as an individual – the bonus on how your shop is performing.
Innovation and Creativity
Pret was aware that CHIP and PIN credit cards would be difficult to introduce without lengthening queues and increasing Team Members up to manager level are paid hourly, each week, at levels 114-131% ahead of other
‘fumble time.’ So Pret developed in conjunction with HSBC a solution that waives the requirement of a PIN, with the company averages. Performance-related pay has been introduced within the shops, based on mystery
company taking the risk on orders below £15. Over time it anticipates that transactions will migrate to touch cards shopper visits, with resulting scores above 90% providing an extra £1 an hour. Pret’s compensation
like Oyster. stands out at Team Member level.

Pret has strived hard to develop hot products that don’t require the customer to wait while they are cooked. Pret A General and assistant managers receive a bonus based on sales, gross profit, personal targets and quality
Manger means ‘ready to eat,’ after all. Pret has become very good at developing heat retention packaging and new standards that can add up to 30% of salary. Every quarter, Pret identifies the highest achieving shops. The
products like its Italian Prosciutto Artisan Baguette have become roaring successes. top three managers have their bonus tripled while the next seven managers see their bonus doubled. Pret
also offers doubled bonuses for the two best mystery shopper ratings, two best quality surveys and two
best manager-controlled profit figures. “It’s a huge incentive. We know from recruiters that these bonuses
really set Pret apart,” says Wareham.

“Whatever your pocket is, Pret will be able to look after you” Head office staff are rewarded for meeting environmental as well as financial targets. If the company does
well, everybody receives a share of the profit and bonuses across the board can be substantial.
(Clive Schlee, chief executive) Shareholding is possible through the Partners in Pret scheme. An employee has to be nominated by members
to be invited to join; each member has three votes and two of these must go to shop-based people rather
than head office management. »
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 Pret a Manger
“When people join we want to Corporate Social Responsibility
Pret doesn’t believe in long-winded ‘eco policies’ that rarely ring true. With a dedicated Sustainability Manager,
see a massive love of people Pret examines each part of its business that affects the environment and establishes a list of priorities under
and of food” the banner ‘Making Sustainability Stick.’
(Danilo Martinelli,
The Pret Foundation Trust supports many different charities but primarily the Pret Charity Run – literally a
general manager) drive to feed the homeless. Previously shops dropped off food to hostels directly or outsourced delivery
to a charity. Pret has now assumed this responsibility with real gusto, taking the whole operation in-house
including three full time employees and a dedicated fleet of six electric vans to distribute food at a cost of
£250,000 each year.

Pret Foundation raises funds by donating profits from certain products (for example the Tuna Baguette and
Christmas Sandwich), loose change boxes in the shops, and its own efforts including a big auction event
– Julian Metcalfe donated two days’ use of his Aston Martin while Clive Schlee threw in a week’s skiing!

Pret has really grasped the food recycling problem by the scruff of the sandwich box – the only fast food
company in the UK to really do so. Pret’s recycling project in the shops has food disposal stations that
Holidays are 28 days including Bank Holidays, rising by one day per year worked after five years’ service to a maximum segregate liquids, food and tea bags, and empty packaging, with a target of 96% recycled. “We’ve spent
of 38 days. There are also flexible and part-time hours working contracts that can be tailored to suit individuals. £0.5m in developing this project,” says Schlee. “We’re probably ahead of our customers on this but
employees, many of whom come from Europe which is ahead of the UK in food recycling, are really pleased.”
Twice a year, the company throws a massive party. Some have passed into Pret legend. Everyone at Pret is invited.
Thermo mugs instead of paper cups; managing a waste budget; and asking customers whether or not
Career Development they want a paper bag all add to the effort. In Hudson’s Place there are similar recycling stations; china
Pret has a strong tradition of developing its people. Currently, 75% of managers began their Pret careers as Team mugs instead of paper cups; notes to switch off PCs and monitors; and instructions to switch off lights
Members. “Someone can join as a Team Member and if they are proficient and excel could be a general manager and air conditioning and to print paper and emails only if strictly necessary.
in two-and-a-half to three years,” says Wareham.
Pret believes that air freighting food and veg is completely unnecessary and (with the exception of basil
Pret runs many courses at its hectic Training Academy in Victoria (most of which have nothing to do with sandwich leaves) it doesn’t do it. Wherever possible Pret buys British and seasonal produce and insists on very high
making). There has always been a clear training programme for Team Members up to line management but a big standards of animal welfare. That’s why you will find Wiltshire cured ham, Alaskan wild salmon, Fairtrade
step this year has been the creation of the Pret Academy to act as an umbrella for all training and offering a clear mango, free-range chicken and Rainforest Alliance coffee in Pret products.
pathway for all managers.

Another recent development is improved clarity of the roles of general manager and assistant manager. The latter
role has been split into front of house and kitchen, which supports Pret’s move to its more café-style proposition.
“The effect on general managers has been amazing,” says Wareham. “Previously they were trying to do everything.”
With well trained people below them, they can now rise above many of the day-to-day, hour-to-hour issues and become
more of a leader.

That means focusing on getting six things right: having the right people, offering amazing service, delicious food and
drink, a well-loved shop, shop profitability and growing sales. “It has to be done in that order too,” says Wareham. Facts and figures
Progression for general managers used to mean moving from a smaller to a larger shop. Smaller shops often need
better managers and with pay now based on individual ability, this issue has been solved. Total number of staff: 3,887 in the UK; 4,000 worldwide
Office location: London head office. 200 shops in UK, 20 in New York, 10 in Hong Kong
There is a rigorous recruitment process. Team Members vote on new recruits and only one in 20 is successful. “It Industry sector: Food retail
makes people feel valued and engenders a genuine teamworking atmosphere,” says Wareham. This year Pret has Turnover: £222m
added a graduate recruitment programme.

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