£1,000 bonus for Pret staff in £1.5bn sell-off

STAFF at Pret A Manger will get £1,000 each after the coffee chain is sold for £1.5bn to German billionaires.

A majority stake in the sandwich chain, owned by private equity firm Bridgepoint, will be offloaded to JAB, the investment vehicle of Germany’s wealthy Reimann family, which owns Krispy Kreme donuts, Kenco coffee and Dr Pepper.

Bridgepoint, which bought Pret for £364m in 2008, had considered listing the firm in New York. Pret chief executive Clive Schlee said: ‘This is a day of celebration. This agreement recognises the hard work of all our amazing teams. Bridgepoint has been wonderful owners of the business for more than a decade.

‘All of us at Pret believe JAB will be excellent long-term strategic owners.’

Schlee said 12,000 Pret staff will be given £1,000 when the deal completes. It has 530 stores worldwide, is rapidly expanding and booked revenues of £879m last year.

College friends Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham founded Pret A Manger in London in 1986 Pret opened its first overseas coffee shop in New York in 2000 One year later, McDonald's bought a minority stake In 2008 the company was bought by private...