Pret a Manger to test lunchtime meal deals as it takes on supermarkets

Pret a Manger will begin trials of lunchtime "meal deal" offers next week as part of a wider push to offer stronger value to customers and expand market share, the company said.

The chain said it will test several formats in the final three months of the year, including a croissant-and-drink combination and a more traditional sandwich, snack and drink bundle, and will experiment with different price points to assess customer response.

Pret’s move places it directly in competition with supermarket meal deals, a long-established lunchtime offer in the U.K. that has seen prices rise in recent years. Tesco, one of the largest supermarket operators, increased the price of its standard meal deal from £4 to £4.25 for non-Clubcard customers earlier this month; smaller price adjustments have also been applied for customers using membership pricing.

Pano Christou, chief executive of Pret, said the trial was part of a medium-term strategy to "offer great value for money" while restoring sustainable profits and growing the brand. "Going forward our priority will be to drive transactions and sustainable growth by offering great value for money for Pret customers," he said.

The timing follows a period of financial uncertainty for Pret. The company reported a pre-tax loss of £525.2 million for the year to Jan. 2, which included a non-cash impairment charge of £552.9 million tied to a reassessment by owner JAB Holdings. That compared with a loss of £61.7 million the previous year. Despite that headline loss, Pret said earnings before adjustments rose 36% to £98 million, while total revenues fell 4.2% to £868.4 million.

Like-for-like sales increased 2.8% and the company continued international expansion, growing its estate by 11% to 717 shops. Christou has said Pret could expand in the U.K. from roughly 500 sites to between 1,000 and 1,500, with plans to prioritise city centres, travel hubs and roadside locations.

The company has also altered its Club Pret subscription offers over the past year, moving away from higher-cost annual and monthly packages toward lower-cost and promotional monthly options. Those changes reflect efforts to boost transactions and adapt to consumer sensitivity around price.

Supermarket meal deals were broadly stable for much of the 2010s but saw price increases starting in 2022 amid wider inflationary pressures on food and retail sectors. Pret’s entry into the lunchtime bundle market will test whether customers will pay a premium for convenience and brand positioning compared with traditional supermarket offers.

Analysts said Pret’s trial could intensify competition for lunchtime footfall in urban and commuter locations, where both retail chains and supermarkets target quick purchases. For Pret, the initiative is part of a broader drive to defend and grow market share while seeking to return the business to sustained profitability.