Pret A Manger has reported a 9.7% rise in like-for-like sales in the 52 weeks to 1 January.
The company saw total sales increase 16% to £594m and EBITDA up 14% to £76m in a year in which it opened 33 new stores, to take it to 374 units in total.
Chief executive Clive Schlee said: “These are a strong set of results and represent another successful year for Pret. With double digit growth achieved in virtually all of our markets, we continued our measured expansion of the business by remaining faithful to our core values and by responding to customer demand for innovative, healthy and hot food. Our Pret Foundation Trust also raised record sums and we distributed 3 million salads and sandwiches to charities for the homeless”.
The company said it continued to adapt its menu to meet increased demand for healthy options and said 12% of total sales came from products developed in the last year. New products include Macaroni Cheese, introduced in October and now selling 50,000 a week, and Green Goodness juices which now out-perform Pret’s classic Chicken & Avocado sandwich.
Coffee remains an area of growth for Pret, with the company selling over one million cups a week last year.
On the outlook for 2015, the company said: “Pret is confident about its prospects for 2015 and will focus on the quality of its food and service, and the quality and breadth of its estate. In 2015 Pret plans to increase investment in new shop construction and build more shops in all of its international markets.”
Pret has continued its broader capital investment programme, extending a further six shops, and updating over 40 shops to increase seating areas and reduce the bottlenecks that lead to queues. The company has invested a total of £191m into its estate over the last five years.
Pret created 526 new jobs last year across all markets, of which 341 were in the UK. Pret’s Apprenticeship Scheme helped a further 60 homeless people back into work, and its UK School Leavers Programme continued to grow, taking on 28 school leavers in September. Pret also created over 100 weekend jobs in 2014 thanks to its “Bring Back the Saturday Job” campaign.
A new training centre, the Pret Academy, opened in London in 2014 and delivered training courses to over 10,000 delegates.
In 2014, the Pret Foundation Trust (PFT) raised a record £1.5m to help support its charity partners and distributed 3m sandwiches and salads to homeless charities.
Its 2014 openings break down into 23 in the UK (of which 15 were in London), seven in the US, two in France, and one in Shanghai, its first in China.
The estate at year end was divided into 288 in the UK, 60 in the USA, 14 in Hong Kong, 11 in France and one in China.
Pret revealed some sales observations, including the fact that hot food sales were up 16% and 57% of sales now come outside lunctime. It also said coffee sales were becoming “more sophisticated” with macchiato up 73% in two years. There has been a rise in demand for gluten-free, dairy-free and meat-free products and Pret now has 42 vegetarian products on the menu. It said there was also evidence of a growing demand for healthy foods like quinoa, kale and almond milk, as well as global ingredients like Korean kimchi.
