Holly HY / 16 June 2025 / Categories: Product and Brands, High Street Brands

Pret A Manger App is the first I’ve ever downloaded

And the first to be deleted

When Pret A Manger founder julian metcalfe started the sandwich chain now franchised globally Kindness was at the heart of the business model. Incidently he was also the founder of Itsu the sushi on the go chain that has expanded across the UK.

I didn’t just love the food, I loved the business ethos too and genuinely loved supporting a business that was helping the homeless back into work with mentoring and rehabilitation for ex prisoners as well. And a CEO Julian whose door was always open and prided himself on being available to speak directly to his customers.

In 2018 the business was sold for 1.5 billion and at some point between then and now became a franchise business each shop owned and operated under the larger brand umbrella

Pret A Manger was sold to JAB Holding Company. The seller was Bridgepoint and other minority shareholders. JAB also owns other food and coffee chains like Krispy Kreme, Caribou Coffee, and Panera Bread so it’s now part of a much bigger operation.

About 12 months ago I was unaware of the sale and as I do shop quite a lot in Pret, at least a couple of times a month, sometimes more, spending about £20 a visit and having the warm vibes of a company run differently I decided to download their app and give Pret Club a go. Usually I am very sceptical about reward schemes but Pret was different or so I thought.

The idea is in exchange for handing over your email you scan your Pret wallet on your phone everytime you shop to collect reward stars you can then redeem for food rewards.

The goal was to get to 10 stars for the first redemption but you don’t get a star each time you shop. It took me about 30 visits in total over about a year to get to ten stars and my reward to activate.

I thought it would be a free lunch but no it was a cookie, costing £2.49 approximately I never buy anyway.

So I’d gone to all that trouble giving pret all my valuable data, shopping patterns and history to get a cookie.

It’s the first app I have ever bought into and downloaded for rewards and it’s the first app I have deleted.

I’ll probably still buy lunch at Pret, the staff at the ones I go to are friendly and I like the food but I cannot see any great advantage financial or otherwise to being a member of the Pret Club unless you are buying coffee for a large group or office every day.