SUBURBS SEND PRET BACK INTO THE BLACK

PRET a Manger swung back to profit in March after two years of heavy losses caused by the pandemic.

The coffee chain said sales are back above pre-pandemic levels as its recovery has ‘continued and accelerated this year’.

Sales outside London have been growing faster than in the capital, where it is still weighed down by the shift of working from home.

There were ‘particularly strong regional and suburban sales’, it said, although a 311 of its over 460 UK shops are still in the capital.

In the first half of the year, sales hit £357.8m, up 230pc from last year and well ahead of the same period before Covid struck.

Pret was devastated by the pandemic as city centres ground to a halt and its clientele of tourists and office workers disappeared.

Last year the firm suffered losses of £225.9m, an improvement on the £343m at the height of the pandemic a year earlier.

Pret’s boss Pano Christou (pictured) also called on the unions and train companies to agree on a deal to avoid further strikes which he said caused a ‘huge’ hit for the business.