Pret A Manger sees dwindling City sales amid latest Covid-19 wave
Pret A Manger has seen dwindling transactions amid the latest Covid-19 wave, which has hit its City stores hardest.
Sales in the café chain’s store in the City have dropped by nearly a third, according to the Office for National Statistics, the lowest level Pret has experienced since late August.
Pret, which operates around 400 stores in the UK, has been knocked hard by the reduced footfall in London as a result of the pandemic.
The latest government advice to work from home, as Omicron makes up over 60 per cent of cases in the capital, has knocked the café chain once again.
Office lunch sales had begun their recovery in the second half of the year, however, Pret sales in the City still lagged behind.
“We know we need to keep pushing in London’s business districts and constantly think about new ways to grow our business in those crucial markets,” Pret boss Pano Christou said in late November.
It comes as the café chain receives thousands of complaints over its drink subscription service earlier this week, after excluding some hot and cold beverages from the offer.
Pret received around 5,000 complaints, after smoothies were often found to be unavailable despite the advert suggesting all drinks were included, the BBC reported.
A Pret spokesperson told City PM: “We’re really pleased with the response to our Coffee Subscription since it launched last year.
“It’s been incredibly popular with Pret customers and significantly less than one per cent of all coffee subscribers have raised any concerns about this issue.”