From left to right: Sinclair Beecham, Pano Christou, Julian Metcalfe, Clive Schlee.
Sinclair Beecham: Pret A Manger RE-co-founder and now back in Pret helping Pret’s mess with debt, customer dissatisfaction etc.
Pano Christou: Current CEO of Pret.
Julian Metcalfe: Pret RE-co-founder and founder of itsu.
Clive Schlee: Former CEO of Pret, now CEO of itsu.
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Jeffrey Hyman, original founder of Pret A Manger that the above four executives avoid to mention nor want to honour.
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A friend of the late Jeffrey Hyman told me on Twitter that someone kept deleting Hyman’s name off Pret’s Wikipedia entry. The person later got banned from Wiki.
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Text for visually impaired readers. Please note that above tweets don’t exist anymore as Simon’s account has been deleted and later taken over by another person. Quote of Jeffrey Hyman’s friend Simon and my response starting 10th January 2022:
“Remembering my great friend Jeffrey Hyman, founder of Pret and FDINUK, who we lost five years ago today. … He was a titan of the UK food industry for years and I still miss his laughter and joy of all things food.”
My response was:
“Unfortunately Pret don’t give him credit & continue to avoid mentioning him, while using his original font/signage in head office & a Victoria shop.”
Simon’s response:
“I know. They even employed someone to repeatedly change the Wikipedia page that mentions how Jeffrey Hyman founded the first Pret-A-Manger. (A moderator banned the person when they said they were retained by Pret to do that).”
End of quotes.
Why do I write about and call the 4 Pret and itsu executives “arrogant”, and further, entitled? Anyone who has followed Pret’s and itsu’s developments in the last few years and certainly those who work(ed) at Pret and itsu know how fake these executives are.
Not to mention that they refuse to mention or honour Jeffrey Hyman.
I could list endless reasons why I had to come to the harsh realisation how truly arrogant and entitled these execs are, but successfully portray(ed) themselves as kind, charitable, generous, ethical etc.
For one, not only how Clive Schlee treated me including Pret’s HR department with Pano Christou who was UK Managing Director at the time, fully aware and part of it. But needless to mention that all the execs, HR personnel etc. who where directly involved in my ordeal (David Carter, Nick Davies, Lila Warren, Andrea Wareham etc.) since 2018 JAB Holdings’ take over have now been made redundant or resigned so Pret can clear themselves off their involvement. But that doesn’t make Pret innocent, as the top execs were involved and in this systemic toxic environment, the fish stinks from its head.
To avoid writing a long post here, I just link to posts and articles about the 4 executives. These are from my own experience as well as staff comments/reviews and press articles.
Sinclair Beecham
Sinclair Beecham’s return to Pret after he already pumped money into Pret during the pandemic. His return to Pret is to help Pret’s £700 million debt, (down now to a little under £500 million after JAB Holdings injected £200+ million) and as of recently (September 2025) news came that Pret lost a third of their value.
CEO Pano Christou with his 20+ years in Pret, having started as assistant manager after he came from McDonald’s management, doesn’t seem to cope well. Christou being busy to portray himself as this cool CEO needs Sinclair Beecham back to fix the mess, not understanding how when you sell out to private equity, you are doomed to either grow beyond your capability or drown.
Is Sinclair Beecham Saving Pret?
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Julian Metcalfe
Metcalfe is a more complex character. I wrote a little exposé on him after he kept retweeting my tweets to him, his audacity to claim his itsu staff “beg” for zero hour contracts. All his tweets to me are deleted after he must have been told who I am. (Please note: my “LateNightGirlMe” handle doesn’t exist anymore):
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Exposé:
It shows his love for zero hour contracts and robots, his connection to the Royal family, a questionable connection, what staff say about him, how suddenly all the negative reviews about him on Glassdoor disappeared after I sent it to him, why some Asian people don’t like him, why is he in Epstein’s address book? And how I chased him off Twitter/X.
How I chased Metcalfe off Twitter:
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Clive Schlee
Where to start with this entitled executive who demanded staff to reach for perfection and smile non-stop to appear a happy company?
Clive Schlee called me his “late night girl” after I was traumatised from the bullying in Pret during bereavement which catapulted me into emailing everyone from friends to Pret to strangers to anyone and everyone. Upon being warned by HR to not email, Clive Schlee went the other way calling me is “late night girl” completely giving mixed messages in his incapability to deal with bereaved employees, not to mention how he and Pano Christou as the UK MD ignored 2 customer deaths and multiple injuries until it got public.
This is THE most show of their arrogance and feeling invincible, having gotten away with not one, but two customer deaths and multiple injuries, not even doing ANYTHING until it got pubic. Why change anything if you keep getting away with things?
And for new readers, Pret’s lack of care did NOT lead to “Natasha’s Law”. Natasha’s parents campaigned for Natasha’s Law. Pret did NOTHING. And the labelling only started once Pret’s neglect to act on customer deaths became public. Pret didn’t even tell us.
Clive Schlee was happy to label me his late night girl while refusing to label food to save lives.
After public pressure on social media, Schlee dived under for 5 years and since 2024 has been made CEO of itsu by Julian Metcalfe, who also gave him the Pret CEO gig.
Why have safety measures in even for staff? Pret ignored for 19 months a call out about a faulty walk-in freezer door handle and several staff got trapped inside the freezer. Most got out within minutes, but one female staff member got trapped for over 2 and a half hours fighting for her life. This finally led to some repercussions and Pret were fined by Westminster Council £800,000, down from the initial £1.6 million set by the judge, as Pret pleaded guilty early on. But the lady is still waiting for compensation in court.
Pret Fined £800,000 After Staff Trapped in Freezer …
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Schlee always did a PR stunt to take a few vulnerable people, flying them to Austria where he has a residence, to hike with him, all while Pret staff where manipulated, bullied, forced to present a happiness or get penalized. Please google Timothy Noah’s excellent article, “The Enforced Happiness of Pret A Manger”.
All the “charity” Pret do is for PR and to self-serve their egos.
Schlee also remains in the background at the Pret Foundation Trust, another tax break organisation to fool the public. And he is current Pret CEO Pano Christou’s mentor.
He appears with Pano Christou in a 2024 event with what Pret call patronisingly the “rising stars” while having a company full of “fallen” stars. The following Facebook posts by the Pert Foundation is from December 2024. Red arrow is Pano Christou and underneath, the yellow arrow is Clive Schlee at the same event:
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I mention this because when Julian Metcalfe put his foot in his mouth regarding lockdowns (please see above YouTube slide “How I chased Metcalfe off Twitter” and my little exposé on Metcalfe), Pret distanced themselves from Metcalfe. But they can’t. All these 4 execs are closely working together, supporting each other, even though Metcalfe threw Pret under the bus last year and seems to be envious of Pret’s expansion, while Beecham tries to save Pret.
And …
Clive Schlee is now CEO of itsu while continuing to support Pret in the background and mentoring Christou. These two companies cannot be distanced from each other.
Clive Schlee’s £1000 Announcement in the Night he Learnt of my Blog
Clive Schlee’s legacy with Pret staff on Glassdoor after a person pointed out to him on Twitter about his reputation when his “retirement” from Pret was announced. This led Schlee to place Pano Christou on Glassdoor already in July 2019 despite Schlee’s “retirement” in September2019.
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Schlee’s last scores dated end of June 2019:
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Pano Christou’s first apearance on Glassdoor dated mid July 2019 despite Schlee’s retirement September 2019:
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Pano Christou
Current, as of mid September 2025, Pret CEO scores on Glassdoor, not much has changed. 54% of all staff from shops to head office approve of Pret, 57% approve of Christou.
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Further, 73% of customers on Trustpilot (1&2 stars combined) disapprove of Pret on a variety of issues, many having sworn to never set foot inside Pret again. Scroll down to the blue oval feature “See all xxx reviews”:.
Three post I wrote I want to highlight on the many issues with Pano Christou.
- His “rags to riches story” that isn’t so inspirational as it first looks: Pano Christou – Rags to Riches
. - His audacity to ask staff to donate to his marathon PR stunt AFTER he cut wages: Pret’s “Charty” Projects
. - Pay delays, pay cut and Christou’s pay rise and millions in bonus AFTER he cut wages.
In 2012 when I worked at Pret and Clive Schlee was CEO with Pano Christou UK Managing Director, we were informed on a Thursday when we get paid that the pay roll department made a mistake and all the shop employees didn’t get paid. Pret would pay us later and the payroll person responsible wrote an email to all shops profusely apologizing, even saying they almost vomited for sickness of the mistake. I wish I printed or copied that email!!!
My thought was, ok mistakes happen. I completely forgot about this until I received a DM a few days before the late Queen’s Jubilee in 2022 saying that for a 2. time in 2022 Pret failed to pay staff!!! I emailed Pano Christou, openly copying in Sarah Butler from the Guardian and others. Sarah picked it up and reported.
But of course, as Pret cleverly chose the Jubilee weekend when the public is distracted from the news AND when there is a bank holiday Monday with banks closed, this news hardly reached anyone.
I put the anonymous DM and then Sarah’s article on YouTube and other places (from 1:32 on):
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Sarah then finally investigated further and months later reported the following:
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So, it would be good to find more information on the original founder of Pret A manger …
Jeffrey Hyman
The only info I know, if true, is that his sister came up with the name Pret A Manger taken from the inspiration of Pret a Porter.
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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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago.
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 on my work with the press.
NEW LinkTree
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Thank you for reading/listening.
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Interview:
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Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 