UK’s Pret hikes price of coffee subscription service, offers food discount

LONDON (Reuters) – British sandwich and coffee chain Pret A Manger has raised the price of its monthly coffee subscription service by 20% to 30 pounds ($37.34) but expanded it to include a 10% reduction on everything sold in its shops.

The group, commonly referred to as Pret, launched its coffee subscription service in September 2020, trying out a new business model to get it through the COVID-19 pandemic which hammered its sales. It initially charged 20 pounds a month, increasing it to 25 pounds a month in February last year.

Pret, which trades from 439 UK shops, said on Wednesday the service was being rebranded to “Club Pret”.

Subscribers will still be able to get up to five barista-prepared drinks per day, but will also get a 10% discount on all food, snacks and any additional drinks they purchase.

Official UK data published last week showed overall consumer price inflation fell to 10.1% in March. However, prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks were 19.1% higher in March than a year earlier, the biggest such rise since August 1977.

Pret, owned by investment firm JAB and founder Sinclair Beecham, said the coffee subscription service has been “hugely successful”.

It said the service is used 1.25 million times per week in the UK, up 11% year-on-year, and has been rolled out to the United States and France.

Pret declined to say how many subscribers it has.

In 2021, Pret set out a plan to double the size of its business by 2026. Globally it trades from over 550 shops.

($1 = 0.8035 pounds)