Is Pret A Manger RE-founder Sinclair Beecham saving Pret?

I Survived Pret A Manger (unsafe company)

Or does Beecham act as the “secret” CEO of Pret? And how customers have lowered their own standards and expectations, just to get cheaper or “free” products.

Audio version on my podcast.
(Please note that the audio is not updated like the below text is).

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IMPORTANT UPDATE 20.07.2024 at the very bottom of this page. Customers UNABLE to cancel the subscription, just like people were not able in 2020 / 2021 and onwards.

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UPDATE 16.08.2024

Pret YET AGAIN are swindling customers by saying they NEED to download the app in order to pay the take-away price when taking away. Customers are now charged the EAT-IN price, even when taking out unless they download the app. I am VERY sure this is illegal. Typical Pret. Review on Trustpilot:

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Link

Contact trading standards!

Why I believe that scrapping the “free” drinks subscription deal (nothing is ever free, I know) will save Pret!

Pret have recently brought back RE-co-founder Sinclair Beecham, who already pumped money into Pret during the pandemic, to help fix the mess. The mess that is £700 million debt, ongoing neglect with safety, quality, hygiene and pest issues, bad press, high staff turn-over, poor customer reviews to name just the most pressing issues. All that while aggressively expanding worldwide to double in size by 2026 as tasked by owners JAB Holdings / Reimann family.

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Customer reviews statistic as of mid July 2024

As Pret are in the news again, this time for scrapping the “free” drinks from their subscription, and the press, together with customers, are throwing a fit, some predict Pret to fail. But I think this will SAVE Pret! I explain below. “Pretman” aka Sinclair Beecham has come out of the phone booth, ready with his cape.

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Little side-note, knowing Pret’s carelessness, I do wonder if NOW Pret warn their social media team in advance when they’re about to p!ss customers off! Social media exploding again with customers fuming, as the Guardian called it.

And I love the humour and satire of customers as always.

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The Guardian: “Pret customers left fuming over end of ‘free drinks'”

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And speaking of nice coffee, I have to update my “Pret Coffee Sucks” slide as complaints continue, including bad coffee in the new Pret shops in India:

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While current CEO Pano Christou with over 20 years in Pret has his head in the sand about customer complaints and bad press, RE-co-founder Sinclair Beecham just having been brought back to Pret, re-starts with radical change. Pano Christou has been on a media tour since the pandemic, presenting himself as this great CEO with a rags-to-riches story while exploiting staff. He kept ignoring customer complaints on a variety of issues and remained silent on bad press reports.

When he was still on Twitter (he deleted his account in July 2019 after I pointed him out to the press) he blocked me while former CEO Clive Schlee and Pret didn’t block. Christou then went to LinkedIn where people tell him all day long how great he is.

Fast forward to 2024 and the reputation of Pret is in the basement from all the various scandals and the TRUE face of Pret being revealed over and over again.

Now after a board shake-up, bringing back Sinclair Beecham while his buddy, the other RE-co-founder Julian Metcalfe threw Pret under the bus recently in the press (see the links below for detail), Beecham starts radical!

Pret now scrapped the 5-drinks-per day on a £30 a month fee with 20% off food and made it quite complicated. But customers who can do the maths alright say it’s the worst deal and many announced to cancel the sub (as they always announce when Pret change the sub and app).

One guy on TikTok, going by the name naimking, did the maths and presents alternatives, even confirming that Caffè Nero’s products are much better than Pret’s. I also worked at Nero before Pret and find Nero’s coffee much better by miles, but despite that I don’t go to Nero as I support small independent businesses. But Nero do a DOUBLE shot by default for the similar price of a Pret coffee, while Pret do one shot. And there’s no such a thing as a “double” espresso or “extra” shot in Pret as Pret play with words as usual.

The alternatives:

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Why do I think that changing the sub will save Pret instead of ruining them, no matter how people throw a fit at first? I am writing since May 2018 on Pret, even before the customer deaths became public which I also didn’t know about. I have observed issues in Pret, boycotts, bad press, reduced customer satisfaction over the years.

Since Pret introduced the subscription in September 2020, there have been many issues where Pret tried to change the subscription but kept going back and forth as customers threatened to cancel the sub (see “How Pret Make Profit…” article below).

I worked in Pret and know how micromanaging, chaotic and wasteful they are. One of Pret’s big problems is that they try to spread themselves to thin, trying to cater to ALL people. But this then backfires as staff are burnt out, customers unhappy, unsafe food practices continue etc.

The press increasingly smashed the subscription (see “Bad Press for Bad Pret” article below) with the Telegraph recently going on an anti-Pret reporting spree for about 2+ weeks. Just one of many media reports, this one from 2022 was one of the first to sound the alarm on the subscription (more reports below in “Bad Press for Bad Pret”).

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The above press reports are just the tip of the iceberg. For more, please see:

Bad Press for Bad Pret.

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UPDATE 30.07.2024

Pret having announced to bring back the 99p filter coffee is yet another lie again. Filter isn;t available in many shops and Pret raised prices to £1.60 and more at times. Customers again flock to Instagram where Pret are more active (Pret haven’t posted any new/original post on Twitter/X since 2023) and say that half the shops don’t sell filter, and if they do they charge £1.30 if people bring their own cup.

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Link to more complaints.

And since Pret turn many shops into franchises, where franchise owners have more freedom to set their own pricing, customers get more and more confused. Pret fully keep shops in airporst and other travel hubs where the most money is but turn many landside shops into franchsies to save money. Pret need cash for their aggressive expansion plans to double in size by 2026 as instructed by their owners.
Recently on Twitter / X:

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In a nutshell regarding the subscription changes in September, the subscription has destroyed customer service, quality of products. Shops are in a mess with burnt-out and rude staff, pest issues, increased food poisoning reports, dirty stores, ripped furniture … and the list goes on.

Little by little customers got slow-cooked like frogs and got accustomed to the poor quality, smaller portion sizes, bad coffee, poor quality food (mouldy food included), rude staff due to burn-out etc. etc.

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These customer complaints on mouldy food and hygiene / pest issues are also just the tip of the iceberg. For more, please see:

Pret’s Food is NOT Freshly Made

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So now, when Pret change the subscription while Leon start to offer a £25 monthly subscription modelled after Pret, customers flip out and call for Pret’s downfall. They got used to the longer waiting time, poorer quality, rude staff … and WANT to continue their cheap coffees.

Sinclair Beecham is helping Pret to raise their standards, while CEO Pano Christou shows NO initiative or innovation because he wants to please the owners in Germany via their in tax haven Luxembourg based company JAB Holdings.

It must be frustrating for Sinclair Beecham as well as Julian Metcalfe who together RE-founded Pret after Jeffrey Hyman started Pret in 1983 but it quickly failed, to watch Pret burn to the ground. Julian Metcalfe threw Pret under the bus via the press recently, and I can’t help thinking that he and his buddy former Pret CEO Clive Schlee are p!ssed off in what Pret has turned into.

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And regarding Julian Metcalfe, I wrote a little piece on his family line and his questionable connections. I also link there how I chased him off Twitter after he came on for 2 days to rant about lockdowns and kept retweeting my posts. He also has complaints on the itsu app and a lot of complaints of people having food poisoning dirty itsu shops as well as ongoing product recalls due to mislabelling.

Here just two recent reviews on food poisoning. One review where half the family got sick from various itsu products. Keep in mind that itsu mainly do sushi (raw fish) and rice. Two high risk foods.

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For more itsu reviews, please see Trustpilot.

Also know or remember that former Pret CEO Clive Schlee owns half of itsu. The mishandling of food continues in Pret as well as itsu. They’re all on big happy family. Clive Schlee got the CEO gig from Julian Metcalfe all these years ago. Current Pret CEO Pano Christou was Schlee’s right-hand-man for years as UK Managing Director.

BOTH Schlee and Christou ignored TWO customer deaths and multiple injuries before it got public. So, Pret were already very bad in handling issues, and Christou learnt from Schlee. Not to mention how Clive Schlee patronised me and how he allowed a bullying and blaming culture. But in good times before the pandemic, Pret were able to fool the public and had lots of money to throw around (except for staff!).

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Link

Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s mother in disbelief over Pret’s inaction:

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Pret also didn’t do anything after the 2. customer, Celia Marsh, died a year later. In times of crisis or lack, the TRUE core of a person or organisation is tested and comes to the forefront. The fact that the perceived “healthy” Pret A Manger hooked up with junk food giant McDonald’s in the late 1990s early 2000s should have raised red flags already on how Pret REALLY are.

And CEO Pano Christou having come from McDonald’s where he was a store manager, having had a head start in Pret as an assistant manager, is coming full circle turning Pret into a McDonald’s type low quality brand.

Clive Schlee was a better “bullsh!tter” than Christou is. I always compare Schlee to the Ronald McDonald Clown. Schlee’s tactic was to sweet-talk, smile and be charming to the public to distract from issues and appear as an ethical and caring company, while Christou is more insecure. And from knowing him during his UK Managing Director days, he was never innovative or brought something new to the table. He was just the shadow of Schlee and learnt all the bullsh!t. But it simply doesn’t cut anymore.

Now, since the pandemic and Pano Christou’s take-over, Pret are a disaster! But I am not surprised about it as I know Pret from having worked there and survived their “lovingly handmade” antics. And I am glad that I started to expose Pret in May 2018 when NO-ONE knew how bad Pret really are behind the happy facade, except journalist Timothy Noah.

Now, 6 years later customers on social media often say things like “I know it’s bad, but I like Pret’s cinnamon swirl …” or semi-apologise for going to Pret because Pret’s reputation compared to 6 years ago has taken a massive nose-dive. My writings have certainly contributed to that after what Pret put me through! And I’m proud of that.

But Sinclair Beecham now is helping RESTORE the quality and reputation of Pret because staff won’t have to do millions of low quality drinks and drop like flies from the sheer work load. This will improve customer service, food and drink quality as well as hygiene and pest issues, high staff turnover will get better etc. etc.

To me, knowing Pret and how they work, Beecham is like the secret CEO of Pret now while Pano Christou is the face of Pret. To save face, JAB / Pret won’t fire Christou, but got in RE-founder Beecham to fix the mess as the secret CEO. Unlike Clive Schlee who served as the Ronald McDonald smiley face of Pret, Pano Christou seemed to have been sent to the naughty corner behind the scenes to let Beecham fix the Pretanic from sinking.

And this also reminds me of how FINALLY former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak brought back former Britain “CEO” David Cameron.

I really love how Metcalfe threw Pret under the bus recently while Beecham gets to work. That’s a BIG give-away right there on the internal conflict between these executives as well as who really cares about the company. And don’t get me started on Metcalfe!

If Pret were to continue the 5-drinks-per-day plus 20% off food for £30 a months deal, the mayhem and reputation would get even worse, especially since staff simply cannot look after customers and each other. The £800,000 fine last year after another staff got trapped inside a walk-in freezer, this time for over 2 hours might have slapped Pret in the face to STOP exploiting and exhausting staff!

A civil claim is still ongoing for compensation for the staff member who got trapped in the freezer. There will be further news on this in the near future, unless they prolong the case or settle.

But changing the deal will help stop the volume of coffee making by exhausted and demoralized staff, which in turn will help staff to better look after the business and themselves.

As Leon now has the same deal of £25 subscription, watch their service and quality deteriorate if they do the deal for a few years.

For press reports, complaints and how Pret make profit from the subscription, please see the following links:

Support small independent businesses, and on work-related issues, join a union!

This tweet remains my all-time favourite comment on Pret:

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UPDATE 20.07.2024

After Pret announced drastic changes to the subscription, customers YET AGAIN are hindered from canceling the subscription. Only 2 examples of many. Also, see the YouTube slide below with complaints from 2020 / 2021 of the same issues and Money Saving Expert reporting on it. Contact TRADING STANDARDS!

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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review as well as mentioned by the BBC.

Please also see the MEDIA page for more.

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Interview:

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