Dear reader, the following is my email to Pret executives and journalists today (28.12.2023). Even though I’m inadvertently doing advertising for Pret, this needs to be written about.
Journalists I openly copied in for Pret to see include Sarah Butler (Guardian), Vivienne Nunis (BBC), Mike Powell (BBC, Times, freelance etc.), Janet Eastham (Telegraph), Amy Sharpe (Mirror etc.) …. and many others.
I copy my mail verbatim and haven’t changed a word here except corrected spelling mistakes. I only squeezed in the word “being” in brackets below.
Please also note that current CEO Pano Christou was UK Managing Director under former CEO Clive Schlee who patronised me and had a LAUGH about the state of my mental health (calling me his “late night girl”). Pano Christou was Schlee’s #2 right-hand man when customers died and when I was targeted at Pret under HR and management. He can’t wriggle himself out by saying he wasn’t CEO then. He was the #2 guy in Pret.
My email:
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To Pret A Manger executives, HR, journalists and others,
I hope everyone had a good Christmas and will have peaceful New Years celebrations and healthy new year.
I am openly copying (CC) journalists and others in, including Dr. Shani Dhanda, whose emails are in the public domain (Twitter, Linkedin etc.). I am blind carbon copying (BCC) others in who reached out to me and/or their emails are private.
Anyone who doesn’t want to receive my mail, please block me. I write so SUBSTANTIALLY for journalists to know NOW and have a reference as I still don’t know how long I can survive.
Upfront to anyone who doesn’t know me, I write so BLUNT after what I survived in Pret during bereavement with many managers shouting at me, gaslighting me/us, pretending our work is not good while we work(ed) our butts off. And behind all this is Pret A Manger’s CORE team in head office. Make my day and sue me Pret! You don’t because it would open a can of worms for you, and you have already bad press as it is.
I write to you Pret regarding your latest PR stunt which you ONLY post on Linkedin because on X/FB/IG you would get backlash from current and former Pret employees, especially frontline shop staff.
Scrolling up in the following X feed that was posted today (28.12.2023) where a former Pret staff is appalled about Pret’s PR stunt on Linkedin. I don’t know him, but have read his previous call-outs on Pret.
Please scroll up in the following X feed where a former staff with mental health problems calls you out after Dr. Dhanda spoke in your company. Quote by Juan Aquiles Gomez: “How can you have the audacity to publish something like that, when I am a victim of dismissal for reasons motivated by my mental health in pret? It seems very miserable to me.”
(Please note, my tweets disappeared due to censoring).
I don’t know him, but I believe him after what I and many others suffered in Pret.
PHYSOLOGICAL “ABUSE” VIA STRICT WEEKLY MYSTERY SHOPPER VISITS:
I could post countless blog posts I wrote with screenshots I took to show how Pret is NOT disability-friendly. Pret might be accommodating disabilities in head office where staff are not required to be super fast under extreme stressful conditions in shops, but even if Pret really wanted to have a disability inclusive work environment in SHOPS, they simply can NOT achieve this BECAUSE the objective of Pret has always been, remains and will always be: LOW wage workers working under fast and stressful conditions, having to smile and love-bomb customers or they don’t get bonus and then get penalised.
Please google Timothy Noah’s “The Enforced Happiness of Pret A Manger” and see examples of Pret’s shopper scheme on my blog. I stopped updating any new reports as the core effort remains the same: low-wage shop staff HAVE TO smile, up-sell, and bend in all directions to get a few pennies more bonus, and even then it’s not given or withheld:
I was reprimanded by management after the mystery shopper commented that I didn’t smile, despite also commenting that my service was polite. This was days after I buried my brother. The mystery shopper did not know I was traumatically bereaved and had no choice but to work and STILL even helped shop after shop after shop to succeed, incl. becoming #1 and the top 10 in the premier league DURING traumatic grief!
NEW PR STUNT USING DISABILITY-FRIENDLY SPEAKERS: (But ONLY on Linkedin 😉 )
Pret, you purposely don’t post Dr. Dhanda’s talk in your company on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X because you know very well that Pret staff would raise their voices again and you have a hard time trying to hide their comments, like you did a while ago when PR-stunting again looking for staff. And you know how I call you out on the BS you post on social media. But you feel safe on Linkedin because business people who are mostly working in PR and marketing, which involves putting out a fake image to the public, they love you and tell you all day what an awesome company you are! You have always surrounded yourself with “yes-men/women” and avoided platforms where people with inside knowledge and common sense call out your bullsh!t, pardon my French, but “foreign branding” works both ways.
And YES, it would be helpful to have a more inclusive work environment for staff with any disabilities, but to Dr. Dhanda, please know that this is yet another of Pret’s PR stunts to appear ethical and caring in the public. Reality is VERY different and I keep imploring journalists to go into Pret for longer than a week, which Amy Sharpe from the Sunday Mirror did. She only worked a week in the late shift. But it needs a journalist to work for at least 1 MONTH in both shop and kitchen in the morning to SEE the systemic issues and dodgy things staff are forced to do to achieve targets!
I KNOW Pret having worked there 10 years in over 30 shops, and survived their antics DURING traumatic bereavement. Please see my post about Lila Warren. I declined Pret’s “hush money” and never signed an NDA.
To Pret, I did screenshots of what staff said before you hid/deleted some comments by staff and then disabled the comment section for further comments by staff.
So, Pret you only use Linkedin where mostly business and marketing people frequent and most low-wage staff and customers don’t hang out or if they do, they are still brainwashed by your lies, yes LIES! But even if I speak out on Linkedin, you’ll get my Linkedin account reported and disabled again as usual. Make my day!
You used NHS workers for PR when you made the announcement on 18. March 2020 just before first lockdown announcing free coffees and 50% rebates for NHS workers. And the very next morning 19. March 2020 Pano Christou sent a mass email to all shops to announce cuts to staff (beginning with hour cuts on their contracts to save money and later cutting wages as well while Pano got a juicy payrise and millions in bonus).
Low-wage Pret workers PAID for your NHS freebie PR stunt.
I was contacted again as usual by staff with your full CEO email, but this SLIPPED by journalists as everyone was DISTRACTED by this PR stunt: https://expret.org/2020/03/26/to-nhs-employees
You made Pret workers pay for this PR stunt. Are you not ashamed?! Do you have NO shame?!
You read my blog and copy ideas as you usually do because I keep pointing out how badly you treat staff with mental health problems. I even wrote an open note to the Pret Foundation after you did NOT take on a man with mental health problems, even though he did excellent, but he was too slow! You didn’t even take him on in the shop like I often fought for when my manager wanted to fire a staff in the kitchen and I pleaded to put them in the shop where they’d thrive!
Your newest PR stunt, that you only post on Linkedin is to pretend to be disability-friendly while your workers suffer mentally as well as physically and financially. And no, your pay-rise PR stunt came because the government raised the minimum wage and will raise the min, wage again in April 2024. You had and have no choice to raise pay a few pennies above min. wage when the govt raises the pay again, and you will PR your way through the media again in 2024 proclaiming to be so generous.
The Guardian’s Sarah Butler’s article again from 2021, and I have already seen that CEO’s bonus has reached over £5 million now.
“Pret CEO handed near-£4m bonus in year staff pay was cut.
Pano Christou also given 27% salary rise in 2021 as chain took more than £50m in government support” LINK to article.
DISHONESTY, LACK OF INTEGRITY, DISCRIMNATION, CARELESSNESS … WILL ALWAYS BE EXPOSED:
I will stop here as I tend to write long emails and blog posts, but I will never stop speaking out against Pret’s fake façade, hypocrisy, discrimination towards staff with mental and physical disabilities and how you targeted me under the watchful eye and involvement of your corrupt HR department, David Carter, Lila Warren (development manager), Sarah Bohn who also held a grievance and blocked me on Twitter/X already a while ago after I posted to her about Lila Warren, her direct colleague’s conduct under Pret’s leadership. (Please note, my tweets disappeared due to censoring).
And then I was fired days after my dad came out of a three-week coma which you knew about after what Lila has done which confused me further!
I will never be silent Pret, Clive Schlee, Pano Christou, even Julian Metcalfe whom I chased off Twitter, but screenshot his appalling tweets before he deleted his account after 2 days on Twitter:
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And now you jump on the Disabiliy-inclusiveness bandwagon to appear great again!
I am sickened by your ongoing disregard for human beings, customers and employees alike. I am still appalled that you didn’t tell us, didn’t do ANYTHING when 2 customers died and 20+ got injured.
73% of customers on Trustpilot (1&2 star reviews combined) disapprove of Pret on a variety of issues, many having sworn to never set foot inside Pret again
Go on, send some people to post FAKE reviews like it is alleged that you tasked someone to post false info on Wikipedia until the person got banned! Because you don’t want the public to know that Jeffrey Hyman founded Pret before he went bust and sold the rights, incl. name and LOGO to Beecham and Metcalfe which you still use at HQ and some shops! A friend of Jeffrey Hyman spills the beans on this, and yes, I already screenshot in case it gets deleted/hidden:
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GROWTH DOESN’T EQUAL (being) ETHICAL AND CARING:
You will grow as you are tasked by JAB to speed-open worldwide. Pano Christou will set a legacy for himself to have grown Pret worldwide, but the truth about your work conditions and how horrifically bad you treat your employees will continue to be told, not just by me.
You can keep on trying to get me shut down everywhere, I will pop up again and again and again and again and again and will NEVER be silent about your appalling way you treat employees who helped you become so successful, as well as having carried you through the pandemic and as a thank you get their pay, benefits, paid breaks etc. cut.
I am proud to have put Pret on the map of reality where 5 years ago hardly anyone believed me how badly you treat your staff, and now it’s become more common knowledge and customers also call you out publicly. And I am extremely proud of having made the step to speak out publicly even while I was shaking in my boots. I don’t shake any-more. You have become the laughing-stock of many.
I have PTSD and am still only surviving and have written thousands of posts and emails in traumatic state and work on the drinking bit, I have written to GOOD people who deserve better in my traumatised state and had Pret managers and HQ staff LAUGH about me. I have many regrets with GOOD people, journalists, friends and strangers, but after what you Pret did via Lila Warren it has destroyed my trust in people. I hope you’re proud to have destroyed yet another staff member on top of customers’ lives, now continuing to sell Mislabeled and even MOULDY food due to the immense stress you put on understaffed workers.
To ALL journalists, friends, former and current Pret staff who reached out, my ongoing apologies to you for my mails! It’s NOT you, it’s me.
To Pret, I apologised enough to you and was gaslit by your disgusting conduct from the CORE of Pret employees incl. executives (Clive Schlee calling me his “late night girl” having a laugh about my mental state). I will NEVER ever regret having called you Pret out on their lies and appalling treatment of myself and many other staff. My www.LateNightGirl.org url remains as a reminder of your poor conduct with hard-working employees. Weeks after he called me that, he gave the green light to fire me, KNOWING my dad just came out of a coma. You have no scruple and will be called out until my last breath.
I continue to put in my late-night-girl shifts and will never be silent.
If anyone outside of Pret wonders WHY not more staff speak out, they are EXHAUSTED and disheartened! And many are “brainwashed” to function and believe Pret are good to them. They feel stuck without a choice of a better employment. Pret degrades hope and confidence in people. I was brainwashed for a while and then too exhausted to find another job. Staff, mostly from other countries, have been conditioned in fear management. I don’t fear Pret any-more. Not one bit!
Having survived and still surviving, I will never be silent! All I hope is for Labour to enter government and in time change the appalling work conditions in companies! Hope dies last.
For anyone OUTSIDE of this toxic Pret A Manger team, my apologies for this long mail. This is mainly for reference for journalists and friends and for Dr. Dhanda.
Kind regards,
expret.org aka former CEO Clive Schlee’s “late night girl”.
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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 and HQ Staff say about Pret and their leadership. 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 and was mentioned by the BBC.
As the Junior Doctors are on strike again, which I completely support, the same bullsh!t words are going around that the BMA union started that Pret staff (or baristas) get £14.10 an hour. This LAZY hijacking of Pret’s staff low-wage shows how little they care about retail workers AND don’t want to take it up with givernment workers’ pay.
I explained since last year that there ONLY few baristas emplpyed compared to other staff. And VERY FEW baristas get the £12.85 and if lucky the +£1.25 bonus = £14.10. And out of those baristas they work at airports and railways stations where it’s immensely busy and Pret pay all staff a few pennies more as well as charging customers more.
A Team Leader who is a position ABOVE the Barista even doesn’t get £12.85 + £1.25 = £14.10.
Just yesterday on Facebook a shop manager posted a staff ad that shows the numbers. I put 2 screenshots here, the 2. with the time stamp so people don’t say this is an old ad. The time stamp hides Pret’s name, so I put both screenshots having hovered of the time:
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The Team Leader there like in most shops gets around £12.15 and if lucky the bonus which then is £13.40. Still no £14.10 despite being a position higher than the barista.
ONLY in AIRPORTS and SOME RAILWAY STATIONS get SOME, VERY FEW baristas £12.85 and if lucky +£1.25.
I worked in shops of 35 – 40 staff all shift and places (kitchen and shop). They only have 1 – 2 Baristas and several coffee makers who are paid less. Airports and the busy trainstations have 2 – 3 Baristas (if at all!) plus several cheaper coffee makers to save money on Barista wage. Do the math on how many airport and railway stations shops there are and estimate how many “trained” Baristas they have, and even out of those few, not many get the £14.10 incl. bonus.
UPDATE June 2024
After the government raised the minimum wage in April 2024, Pret are forced to up the pay a few pennies.
Pret barista job ad on Indeed as in June 2024, the MAXIMUM a barista gets is £13.65 INCLUDING bonus! Do your OWN research!
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Close-up:
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Not even TEAM LEADERS (shop & kitchen) which are shift supervisors in Pret get £14.10. Again, June 2024 Team Leader ads on Indeed. Maximum £13.85 INCLUDING bonus which is hardly achieved aevery week:
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THIS in contrast to a 12 year old SMALL sandwich chain from Bristol called “Sandwich Sandwich” who want to give Pret a headache and now opened up in London. They have only about 6+ shops (Bristol & London) paying their team leaders aka super visors £14.15 an hour EXCLUDING bonus. Not sure if they have a bonus system, but £14.15 compared to UNDER £14.10 in Pret which is INCLUDING the bonus that is hardly achieved.
IT’S JUST A HANDFUL out of thousands of staff who MIGHT get £14.10 INCLUDING hardly to achieve bonus!!!
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UPDATE September 2023:
A job ad on Facebook with barista pay £11.42
It’s clear from what I write below that the £14.10 is a myth and only available for extremely rare baristas who have connections to management.
September 2nd, 2023: £11.42 + £1.25 bonus (if lucky to get it) = £12.67 NOT £14.10!
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Further in my post from March 2023:
UPFRONT:
Pret emphasise BARISTA wages, even though hourly paid Team Leaders are above Barista’s position and pay, and that’s simply BECAUSE many staff and especially Baristas have quit Pret.
And ESPECIALLY after the smoothie/frappe lies Pret gave for years resulting in the BBC reporting on it .
Pret NEED Baristas since many shops open later and close earlier due to even more lack of staffsince the coffee subscription mess. Therefore Pret emphasise THAT particular payrise to the press, despite Team Leader being a position AND pay above Baristas. Only VERY few Baristas will get that “up” to pay, who work at airports and made friends with management.
Pret depend on Baristas to get many and FAST coffees out because coffee is the BIGGEST profit margin and Pret keep pushing the coffee subscription that had many staff quit! A latte for customers means £3.50+, but for Pret means around £40p including cup, lid, milk, water, Barista wages etc.
So, Pret will be delighted to find that social media is on fire with people appalled that Pret staff (supposedly) will earn more than junior doctors, and so getting much needed publicity after all the bad press. Pret very cleverly again use terminology and keep information vague. Quoting the UP TO £14.10 “depending on experience and location”.
Pret via the media announced a payrise in March 2023 for April 2023, but fail to mention WHY they raise wages. The UK government will raise the minimum wage to £10.40 in April, and Pret would be in breach if they don’t raise the basic pay as it is below £10.40 currently (March 2023).
A Pret worker will start at £10.60 in April. Pret always pay 20p more than the minimum wage to appear generous. But this is because work at Pret is so exhausting, staff work for three people, even before the pandemic. But now it’s much much worse, and many staff have quit. The current pay bands until end of March 2023 can be seen below.
Pret say that depending on experience and location, that Baristas can earn up to £14.10 per hour, but again keeping it nice and vague. Pret don’t mention that this is for including the £1.25 bonus which is NOT contractual. And the “up to” pays incl. bonus is at airports and busy railway stations like Waterloo, King’s Cross etc. where the pay for staff and food costs for customers are higher. And airports are even WORSE busy than regular shops! And it’s “up to” £14.10! Mostly it’s less than that for most Baristas.
“Barista pay is slightly higher and will increase from between £10.85 and £12.50 an hour to between £11.20 and £12.85. Pay rates depend on location and experience.” Source: Sky.com
So, the £14.10 INCLUDES the £1.25 Mystery Shopper bonus which is NOT contractual and therefore not guaranteed (many shopsrarely get the extra £1.25 bonus per hour). It can be refused to be rewarded by weekly Mystery Shoppers (see Mystery Shopper reports on what’s demanded from staff), but also by Managers for ANY silly reason. The bonus system as psychology is abused and used to keep workers on their toes.
Hardly any Barista will get the £12.85, let alone the added £1.25 = £14.10 per hour. Most start and REMAIN on the lowest of £11.20 and don’t always get the £1.25 bonus.
Also, Pret shop General Managers who have to cover Team Members (lowest position) to save money and work overtime without extra pay, say that at times Team Members are paid more than GMs.
And a staff who is HOMELESS and has to couch surf while Pret do their PR stunts “helping” homeless people and collecting donations (for tax breaks and brownie points with the public):
I suggest again like I do all the time, that an undercover journalist goes into Pret or at least that journalists wait a few months until AFTER April 2023 when wages across companies are raised, and ASK Pret Baristas from different shops if they get the “up to” £14.10 incl. bonus. I guarntee you, most will laugh you out of the shop!
And Pret here emphasise on Barista pay while Team Leader pay and position higher than Barista. That means Pret are DESPERATE for Baristas as many have left.
Plus, all staff, and especially management work many more hours overtime unpaid. So, if breaking down the pay, it is less than all the pay bands mentioned in below’s chart. Staff are manipulated to work overtime without pay and managers are pressured to CUT labour and then stay longer unpaid. Win-win for Pret execs and shareholders on the backs of shop workers AND managers.
And shops on average have 1 – 3 or 4 assistant managers (kitchen and shop floor) while having anything between 15 – 50+ staff depending on how big and busy/long opening hours the shop is, like an airport or trainstation. So, this “up to” £14.10 is just for a small handful of Baristas, most who’ll be friends with management.
A Barista gets a little over £11 in April 2023 AFTER being a lesser paid team member for god knows how long. You never start as a Barista in Pret, but always as a Team Member. Only Managers who come from other company brands start as ASSISTANT Managers in Pret before then being promoted to Managers again (like it was with current CEO Pano Christou). Any other role in shops start at the bottom on Team Member level with the pay you will see in below chart.
And all the pay bands will mostly be kept at the LOWEST rate for most, except for those who make friends with management, including via the bed room. Sad but true. Please see a recent staff review on this.
And whatever pay anyone gets, they will stay on that pay for many, many years and work for three people. Pret sucks the life-blood out of staff and fool the public.
In my Pret CEO Pano Christou’s Rags to Riches post I go through the various shop positions. Pano Christou loves to tell the press that he “started in shops”, which is true, but he often fails to mention that he started as an assistant manager with more pay, perks, benefits, more holiday, more bonus, sick pay from day 1 (that’s a big one!) etc. etc.
I explain in detail many of the benefits he received from day 1 starting in Pret compared to what a Team Member gets. In brief, the main SHOP positions are very hierarchical. You NEVER jump the line to Barista. Workers start at:
#2 – Barista or Hot Chef (shop floor) or Team Member Trainer (kitchen)
#3 – Team Leader (kitchen or shop floor as both are run by separate Team Leaders)
#4 And THEN Assistant Manager shop OR kitchen. Pano started from day one as AM after coming from McDonald’s where he was a Manager. ONLY Managers from other companies fast track, or rather for them, back track to Assistant Manager position with lots of perks.
Pano just likes to portray to the public that he started at the “bottom”. Typical Pret psychological wordings, knowing the public always ASSUMES things. “Starting in shops” can mean anything! But most assume it means he started as a low-wage Team Member. Nopes.
I worked at Pret when Pano was UK Managing Director, and I was never impressed with him. In my experience, he’s not a leader. He doesn’t come up with any significant changes, he was just the shadow of his mentor, former CEO Clive Schlee, like a clone speaking the same psychological slogans. And even in staff reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed and on social media staff keep mentioning that he’s detached, despite visitng shops to let his boss hang out. In my impression of him, he has his head in the sand and just caters to Pret’s owners, 2. richest family in Germany, the Reimanns under in taxhaven Luxembourg based JAB Holdings, and he wants to build a legacy of speed-opening shops worldwide, while many existing shops are in shambles.
#5 – Genral Manager overlooking both shop and kitchen
And then if they move further up, they’ll go outside shops to become Group, then OPs/Operations (area) Managers. Group Managers get their feet wet by being placed in an area of about 4 – 5 shops before moving on to become OPs where they then look after an area of about 10 – 14 shops.
But let’s go further if we do compare government wages to private equity wages. CEO Pano Christou got £300K in 2020, £400K in 2021 during the pandemic when profits were down and after he cut wages, benefits, bonus and paid breaks of the lowest paid staff. And I’m sure he’s getting another £100K now in 2023. PLUS £4million in bonus in 2021 and counting in the years to follow.
UK Prime Minister Richi Sunak gets £165K, and let’s just forget for a moment that this is just like a waitress tip in coppers for this multi-billionaire. But Pret’s CEO gets more than double in annual wage than Sunak, PLUS millions in bonus.
USA President Biden also gets less than Pret’s CEO, just a fraction less in annual pay. Do your own research.
I took the liberty to change the BMA ad in honour of low-wage Pret Staff who are tossed around like a football by Pret, the government, and now NHS Unions and Staff:
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And this corrupt Tory government are WORTH the likes of Pret. You know why? Because they deserve every mouldy sandwich they can buy.
Now, here’s the current pay rate for Pret shop staff until April 2023 for each position. And as you can see, you won’t find assistant managers on the chart. 😉
Pret just spin the numbers very vaguely, not mentioning the discretionary bonus, and the public falls for it!
I screenshot this table on 13.03.2023 off Pret’s website where it’s linked to via a pdf link:
So, workers, as in Team Members will start 20p higher than the minimum wage from April on. And that’s for staff over 22 years old, mind you. And a Team Leader is really like a mini manager doing all the work, running shops and getting all the blame. I was a Team Leader, I know how excrutiating it is for such a low pay.
Also, Pret made cuts to staff IMMEDIATELY before first lockdown in March 2020 WHILE giving freebies to NHS workers. And later Pret proceeded to cut wages, benefits, bonus, paid breaks etc. Pret workers are still worse off than before. This payrise is due to the minimum wage being raised, and is a complete joke and PR stunt.
And most fall for it using low-wage Pret workers as examples to boost support for NHS staff. I completely agree that doctors, nurses etc. should get way more pay, but don’t use Pret staff and the MISLEADING “up to” £14.10 pay which includes the discretionary (not mandatory) £1.25 bonus to make a point, while you don’t do your research properly and fall for Pret’s vague wording where Pret leave YOU to assume the pay is for baristas.
Use the government’s CORRUPT dealings to prove your point! And stop falling for Pret’s bullshit!
Doctors, nurses and unions should point their fingers UP to the government that always say they can’t afford to pay what doctors/nurses and unions ask for. Yet, the government comes up with multi billions for dodgy stuff. THAT’S where doctors and nurses should raise their voices, and not the lazy way to point downwards to fastfood workers. What a shame!
Use the Billions the government came up with for the track & trace scheme that failed.
Use the £140 million they already paid and the annual £1.5 Billion to send traumatised refugees to Rwanda, a country with human rights issues.
Use the millions upon millions upon millions of pounds for dodgy contracts by many Tory politicians for their families and friends.
Use the wall paper money Boris Johnson spent.
Take your pick! The list can go on and on and on. But no, let’s use low-wage Pret workers. That’s LAZY activism! And it’s also misleading and deeply dissappointing that educated people don’t fact check Pret’s pay for various roles but just fall for Pret’s clever and vague wording.
Point to this corrupt government that use tax payers’ money to spend it on themselves instead of the people and workers across the board. The government AND Pret LOVE it when workers in all fields and skills pick on each other for the crumbs these millionaires throw at them.
Last year Pret TWICE delayed paying staff under dodgy excuses. The second pay delay strategically using the Queen’s Jubilee bank holiday weekend, knowing the public would be distracted should the press become wind of it, which it did as I was contacted by Pret staff and passed it on to The Guardian. AND on Monday banks are closed while Pret promised that staff can get pay on THAT bank holiday Monday.
I was contacted by desperate staff and emailed CEO Pano Christou and openly copying in Sarah Butler from The Guardian, who then reported on it. But because it was the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, hardly anyone noticed the news. Pret being clever again.
Later The Guardian then also reported that the CEO got almost £4million in bonus and a 27% payrise in 2021 AFTER he cut wages, benefits, bonus etc.
That’s Pret A Manger for you!
Junior Doctors do NOT earn less than Pret baristas! Do some FACT checking and research, and stop using the bottom most rung like Pret and everyone else already do!
The DM I received and passed on to The Guardian:
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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying (in which Manny Matern was part of) 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. 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.
UPDATE July 2024 at the very bottom regarding ongoing food poisoning complaints in various itsu shops.
Further updates 2024/2025 about Metcalfe’s driver license issues at the very bottom of this page.
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Let’s do a little bit more digging into Julian Edward Metcalfe, founder of itsu and re-co-founder of Pret A Manger. This is just a brief “case study”, not a deep dive into Metcalfe’s family line as I want to highlight something specific.
And dear journalists, maybe one day you may give credit where all the research I do for free and ALWAYS credit/link to the source where I found the information, my experience and encounters with these people comes from. I am not a journalist, but a survivor of workplace bullying during bereavement at Pret.
Also, to British people especially journalists, I write so detailed as if I was teaching a school class because I have many American readers who are not familiar with who’s who in the Royal Family.
Julian Metcalfe is the founder of itsu and what I call the co-RE-founder of Pret A Manger. I explain below.
Julian’s father: David Patrick Metcalfe.
The Duke of Windsor (who before that was King Edward VIII, Queen Elizabeth’s uncle) was David Metcalfe’s godfather.
Julian’s grandfather: Edward “Fruity” Metcalfe.
Edward Metcalfe was best man to then recently abdicated King Edward VIII and American actress Wallis Simpson. This led to Queen Elizabeth’s father becoming king.
Julian’s great-grandfather: George Curzon, 1st Marquess of Kedleston.
I will mention him later from an interesting tweet.
Quote from The Telegraph article about Julian Metcalfe’s parents:
»The couple had two sons and a daughter, but divorced in 1964; two years later Alexa died after taking what a pathologist at the time suspected was “a sleeping draught”. Their children, including Julian Metcalfe, the future founder of the Pret A Manger sandwich chain, moved back to live in great style with their father. “We had powerful people to dinner all the time,” Julian Metcalfe later recalled of his childhood.«
Another quote about David Metcalfe, Julian’s father which shows how Julian grew up in the highest society and privilege: »Friends celebrated (David) Metcalfe as “the last man about town with a bit of style”. At his home in Wilton Street, he was host to “everybody who is anybody”.«
And of course with all these connections to the Royal Family and high society, Julian Metcalfe has an OBE.
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Now let that melt on your tongue like a mouldy Pret sandwich: Julian Metcalfe’s FATHER was the godson of King Edward VIII, who gave up his “kingship” to be with Amercian actress and *scandal scandal* divorcee Wallis Simpson. Prince Harry repeated that, but he didn’t have much to lose.
Let’s do some brain-fnck here:
Prince William is the great-grand nephew of King Edward VIII (later Duke of Windsor), giving the OBE to great-grand son of best men to King Edward VIII – or – son to godson of King Edward VIII / Duke of Windsor.
Got it?!
Oh, what a coincidence!
Katschink!
Is there any wonder that some call Pret a “British institution”?
The million dollar question is: Who is Julian Metcalfe’s godfather? Prince Philip? Or even Prince Charles if he wasn’t too young to have become godfather? Metcalfe’s Wikipedia entry is mighty quiet about all his royal connections.
In his full Q&A at the Oxford Union I noticed one thing very predominantly, Julian is constantly portraying that he fell into success by accident. He pretends to be clueless, admits that he was lazy in school and that success supposedly just keeps falling into his lap, as if he’s such a talent where everything he touches just happens to turn to gold.
In reality, I believe that from what I read in the press, his foot-in-mouth disease in his tweet exchange with me and the itsu staff reviews (see my YouTube slide further below), that he is a spoiled prat who had enough money to re-start Pret after it didn’t succeed the first time around.
I write so blunt because of how he treats his staff and his indifference to the health and life of people in general.
And I, a NOBODY chased him off Twitter simply because this prat isn’t used to getting challenged! When you read the staff reviews of him that I linked to him on Twitter and later put on my YouTube slide, it’s very visible that he must be a very aggressive, angry and patronizing person. His staff must be in sheer fear around him. He is used that everybody hushes around him or is part of his harsh environment. Most journalists kiss up to him and business people worship him. And then little me comes along, challenges him for 5 minutes and he tucks his tail between his legs and dashes off after just 2 days on Twitter!
Most of you who read this are perfectly fine with rich people, especially men, to treat HUMAN BEINGS on low wage like sh!t. But you counter me, a “nobody” when I speak out, because you are upset that YOU don’t do the same.
In his Oxford Union Q&A he keeps portraying to be falling into success by accident. One itsu staff review hints at this very strongly in a shocking review calling him “oafish”.
Click Ctrl & + to enlarge the screenshot or just read the full review via the link underneath. Ctrl & – to decrease the size again.
The above review (click on link underneath) has been DELETED off Glassdoor which doesn’t surprise me! I will check if the other reviews are also deleted. I have seen several itsu reviews and customer complaints disappear, as well as being told by a friend of the late Jeffrey Hyman, who founded Pret, that Pret (or maybe even itsu) have messed with Wikipedia entries (see info below). Pret and / or itsu must have either complained to Glassdoor, Indeed etc. or found out who the person(s) is / are who wrote negative reviews and “influenced” them to delete it. THAT’S WHY I make and keep screenshots!
For this and other reviews I took screenshots of and sent to Metcalfe on Twitter before he deleted his account, please see below video. That’s all Pret and itsu do, they contact platforms and / or fear manage people who left reviews to delete them. And compared to Pret, itsu are very active on Glassdoor, responding to negative reviews. And itsu does a clever thing to ask the reviewer to contact itsu to discuss this further. In reality itsu and Metcalfe want to KNOW WHO the reviewer is! NEVER respond to companies fishing for your identity! There’s a reason employee reviews are set to anonymous.
And as Julian Metcalfe has a big inflated ego, I’m sure he does everything to get reviews about HIMSELF personally deleted. No surprise there. But the truth will always surface in time Mr. Metcalfe.
For people with visual impairment where audio reading programs cannot read screenshots, I just quote a few highlights from above review, quote:
»Toxic leadership, Favouritism, Lack of Diversity, Poor Management, Cruel CEO / Founder
JULIAN METCALFE the oafish chaotic founder who insists on being involved across all areas despite having little to no knowledge in anything apart from sales and operations. He wanders the office behaving as if he’s a cutesy naive child and then behind closed doors will overtly disrespect and bully those that work directly with him. Have noticed him being very sexist, making racist jokes in front of minority staff, and regularly shouting loudly and aggressively at managers TIL they’re in tears. (A technique which his leadership team mimic) – head office is in constant turmoil and there’s a very high staff turnover due to people leaving after breakdowns or lack of support (mainly Julian’s mistreatment) or by being discreetly fired when Julian decided he’s displeased. – schoolgirl gossiping, hostility and aggression amongst department heads.
… When you have your employees shaking with stress and fear who call the police on your c.e.o. Due to an uncomfortable environment that is probably a wise time to step in.«
End of quote.
This and other similar reviews I linked to Metcalfe on Twitter, causing him to delete his account shortly after.
A recent little video appeared on Twitter with the title “Why I h8 itsu”.
Just click the play |> button or click the Twitter link under this video:
As I write on Pret and also “chased” Metcalfe off Twitter (please see YouTube player below) I get contacted now as well by itsu staff and customers. One email I received was last year:
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Quote for people with visual impairment where programs can’t read screenshots:
“Hey there! I saw your Twitter and how you faced bullying and abuse from Pret. I’ve recently been doing research into Julian’s other company Itsu as I’ve been a consumer of it for a while. However, there are massive racist notions and cultural misappropriation that I’ve found and hoping to gain support from for the company to make actual changes. Would you be interested in seeing what I have over email or Discord or anything else?”
Other reviews along those lines where Metcalfe is directly mentioned as being accused to being sexist, racist, aggressive etc. I put on my YouTube slide below together with his deleted tweets that I screen-grabbed before he deleted.
I find his facial expression, tone of voice and choice of words pretty intense to put it lightly. But of course an appearance or impression doesn’t prove anything. Many people, especially in the business world fall for this and mistake this for “passion” or “being passionate”. What I see is aggression and anger. And I also noticed that half the questions he is asked, he doesn’t answer except with the same supposedly “humility” of saying that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Anyone taking a closer look? Anyone REALLY look at his words and demeanor, and see something here?
Many of these itsu staff reviews keep pointing out that he behaves like a clueless child, before then aggressively “undoing” months worth of work.
I linked some of these reviews to Metcalfe on Twitter. He must have been warned by Pret about who I am, as he then suddenly deleted some tweets and his Twitter account completely after being on there only for 2 days.
Most of his tweets I took screenshots of before he deleted it as I was gobsmacked that he even responded to me and kept retweeting my tweets. I think someone in his PR department needs to get fired, unless he doesn’t listen to them.
I placed most of Metcalfe’s deleted tweets in the following slide:
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I use YouTube and other platforms because my blog where I expose the REAL Pret A Manger from behind their happy facade, used to be heavily censored and completely blocked on Facebook and Instagram for a couple of years. So, I started a YouTube channel as they can’t block YouTube. Pret must have reported me to social media, Twitter is regularly censoring me, but this forced me to spread out onto other sites and thus expose Pret on a much broader spectrum. Thank you very much Pret. 🙂
What’s crazy is, that after I also chased Pret CEO Pano Christou and former CEO Clive Schlee off Twitter (Pano “hides” on Linkedin where people tell him all day long how wonderful he is), I tweeted to Metcalfe that we will see how long he will last on Twitter. I had a laugh basically, not realizing he’d delete his account a day later!
Note: I changed my Twitter handle from @LateNightGirlMe to @ expretDOTorg as Clive Schlee patronized me, calling me his “late night girl”. So I took that, turned it around and created my blog latenightgirl.org which will lead to expret.org. I created a Twitter handle to throw it back at him publicly. But I changed the handle as it doesn’t make much sense for new readers who are unfamiliar with my story.
UPDATE, that handle is suspended after I called Tristan and Andrew Tate “pimps” on my feed. Tristan Tate had the audacity to DM me, giving me unsolicited advise.
But I know how this shocked Clive when he first learnt of my blog and then qucikly made the £1000 announcement to all staff to counter my writings. I write about the timing of the £1000 for all staff in The Day Clive Schlee had a Bright Idee.
And as my handle is changed, it is now under my new handle on Twitter itself. Also, as Metcalfe deleted his account, you don’t see his handle in the tweets anymore, only the screenshots I took at the time show it.
Excuse my strong words, but I struggle with anger after what Pret put me through:
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And if people put his deleted handle @JulianEMetcalfe into Twitter search, they will only see the replies from people to Metcalfe, but not his handle anymore.
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THERE ARE TWO JEFFREYS that Julian Metcalfe doesn’t want to be connected to.
The first is the late Jeffrey Hyman, the original Pret founder, opening the first shop in 1983 Hampstead but didn’t succeed. He sold the brand, name and logo to Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham. But Pret, Julian Metcalfe, his friend and business partner former Pret CEO Clive Schlee who owns half of itsu, and current CEO Pano Christou all refuse to mention or honour Hyman.
And yet, Pret keep used similar Pret logo / font that Hyman used in 1984, compared to the later one placed in their head office and in at least one shop, in Victoria. I made the below photo in about 2020 or 2021 outside one of Pret’s Victoria shops when I walked by, knowing about this later Pret sign that I saw for the first time in Pret’s Victoria 75B Bressenden Place head office, and then later Pret used a similar style that Hyman first used in 1984.
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This logo was used by Hyman in 1984 and the name, concept etc. then sold to Metcalfe and Beecham who restarted Pret in 1986. A plaque is dedicated to Metcalfe and Beecham, but no mention whatsoever on Jeffrey Hyman.
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And maybe Pret cleverly mention the first Pret shop AND kitchen to say later that Hyman’s shop didn’t have a kitchen?
Since about 2 – 3 years Pret now have the brainwash words above shops and sometimes packaging, simply saying “London 1986”. This way, every customer who walks into a Pret shop gets brainwashed of the opening in 1986 by Julian Metcalfe and Sinclaire Beecham, instead of in 1983 by Jeffrey Hyman.
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Pret cups merely saying “1986” to brainwash customers about the founding date.
A friend of Hyman told me on Twitter that Pret employed someone to keep deleting Jeffrey Hyman and the 1983 opening of Pret from Wikipedia:
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THE OTHER JEFFREY that Metcalfe doesn’t want to be connected to is Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein who’s the convicted pedophile whom many believe was “suicided” in prison. It does not need to mean anything that Metcalfe is in Epstein’s address book, as Epstein was collecting data from many rich and influential people he met or knew. But it’s still interesting. I write about how I came to this info on Julian Metcalfe in Jeffrey Epstein’s Little Black Book.
As I “chased” Metcalfe off Twitter, blogged about it and made this slide on YouTube showing his deleted tweets, itsu staff or people who are familiar with Metcalfe issues contact me. This is how I became aware that Metcalfe is in Epstein’s “little black book”. Again, this doesn’t mean anything as Metcalfe’s 2. wife Brooke Douglass de Ocampo was a New York society writer and therefore well connected. But I still find it interesting. It’s clear that the rich and famous are connected, often dating back decades into the past. Not to mention Prince Andrew’s direct friendship with Epstein and Metcalfe’s family connections with the Royal Family. They all know each other.
It’s one big happy family. This and Metcalfe’s close friendship to Clive Schlee, who is Pano Christou’s mentor, is why Pret cannot be distanced to Metcalfe when he made his ‘eugenicist’ statements to the Daily Mail and continued to rant on Twitter before deleting his account. Not to mention how Pret ignored TWO customer deaths and over a dozen injuries before it got public. Not to mention how awful Pret treat their staff. That’s from my own traumatic experience and what staff review on Glassdoor and Indeed, press articles etc. etc.
After I linked itsu staff reviews to Metcalfe on Twitter, he kept putting his foot in his mouth saying that anonymous staff reviews are biased. Well Mr. Metcalfe, this then also goes for the positive reviews. You can’t have it both ways.
One of his responses I didn’t include in my YouTube slide where I put most of his deleted Tweets. But he had the arrogance and audacity to claim that his low-wage staff “begged” for zero hour contracts. He also aims to turn shops mostly into robots and machines serving customers, eliminating labour costs to advance his net-worth £215 million personal empire.
Pret as well as itsu staff are also mainly “trained” via iPads on their free time during break or after work. There’s little to no training in both companies. And whatever training there is, workers have to do unpaid in their free time.
Greed is a bottomless pit.
Please note that my Twitter handle used to be @LateNightGirlMe after Clive Schlee called me his “late night girl”. So, to throw it back at him, I took that offense and created my blog under latenightgirl.org & Twitter name. I changed it as it doesn’t make much sense for people, and to keep my blog URL visible as it’s often censored on social media platforms. I explain the “late night girl” issue in the audio interview at the very bottom of this post.
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What a clown!
He actually wrote that! As if low-wage workers who are already paid the minimum possible, have so much money to spare to afford being flexible with their time. Anyone who wants to have flexibility to work can afford it and does not need a low-paid shitty job like itsu or Pret. I’ve rarely been held for such a fool. And before anyone mentions that Pret and itsu have “happy”, smiley staff, do some research on their strict and micromanaging mystery shopper scheme.
If people just take a slight look at his business dealings, it becomes very visible that he does NOT care whatsoever about workers, labour rights, building up a healthy workforce etc. He is your “average” greedy, entitled business men, coming from privilege but pretending to be an entrepreneur having started from nothing.
His “survival of the fittest” attitude is not just evident in his ridiculous lack of being media savvy to the Daily Mail (or his PR rep was on holiday), where he was happy to sacrifice the elderly and vulnerable people to save his millions, but in an interview with The Telegraph. The heading quotes Metcalfe: »Only the fittest will survive high street cull, warns Itsu and Pret founder Julian Metcalfe«.
I didn’t even know about the ads that Metcalfe did with women athletes he later tried to justify to me in his (now deleted) tweet after I linked staff reviews to him saying he’s a sexist (please see slide above). Just after he mentioned this I researched and found this ad in The Evening Standard:
»Women who are not trying to be men!«??? What insecure talk is that Mr. Metcalfe?
Julian’s great-grandfather which led me to reasearch a little.
George Curzon, 1st Marquess of Kedleston.
I started to dig a little deeper into Metcalfe when I saw the following tweet after Metcalfe made his lock-down comments to the Daily Mail:
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Julian Metcalfe took a page out of his great-grandfather's book. George Curzon, 1st Marquess of Kedleston cut rations during the Indian famine, claiming "indiscriminate alms-giving" was a public crime. Millions died. So what if a few thousand die to save a sandwich chain? pic.twitter.com/LKMCPv8pfO
In typical Metcalfe fashion, being overly dramatic, fear mongering because he fears to lose a few pennies from his empire:
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And of course I need to mention Metcalfe’s buddy Clive Schlee with whom I had shocking encounters that I explain on the audio player interview here at the bottom of this page. Metcalfe and Schlee have been friends and business partners since decades. Metcalfe gave Schlee the CEO spot in Pret.
I found an interesting lawsuit that was won by a former itsu partner who claimed he was booted out by Metcalfe and Schlee. He won his court case and received an undisclosed compensation amount, probably in exchange for signing a NDA so the amount cannot be disclosed.
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Quote from The Caterer article: »A senior chef last week won his unfair dismissal case against Julian Metcalfe, founder of both the Pret A Manger sandwich-shop chain and Itsu sushi restaurants in London.
Clive Fretwell, who had worked for 14 years at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, told a Woburn employment tribunal he had been recruited in 1988 to help develop a chain of Itsu restaurants.
He said the intention had been to give him a 2.5% founding stake in the business and an additional 10% in two years, with the possibility of “big money” if it were sold.
When a second restaurant, which opened two years later, failed to live up to expectations, Fretwell claimed he became aware that Metcalfe and Itsu co-director Clive Schlee were trying to get rid of him.
He said he was told last July that the company could not afford his salary, and he was dismissed in August.
The compensation agreed was undisclosed.«
»… trying to get rid of him« sounds very familiar to me. I wasn’t even a “partner” with a certain percentage stake in Pret, just a small fish, an underpaid and overworked team leader. But I raised big concerns and trauma on Pret’s systemic bullying culture where they tried to get rid of me as soon as I became bereaved.
In an The Independent article about the lawsuit Clive Fretwell described Metcalfe as a “strong personality”.
It’s worth doing some research into Clive Fretwell who is a respected chef having learned in France and cooks “proper” cuisine.
Staff and workers help Pret (and itsu) to build their brand and ONLY if they are part of their elite group of like-minded people who are only out for profit and having a laugh on the costs of workers, are they protected. If they’re not part of their way, regardless how hard they work and help make the brand successful, they’re out. That’s why the Pret Foundation Trust is a joke, a smokescreen to hide ruthless practices behind the happy facade and a PR stunt for brownie points with the public.
I had NO help from the Pret Foundation when I became bereaved and then bullied by the core people of Pret. NOTHING! Even though I asked for support from the foundation as well as an area manager later also IN WRITING asked Pret to place me under the PF.
Nopes. Nada. Instead, upon HR’s request run under David Carter, then head of HR, I was gaslit via another HQ staff and then fired days after my dad came out of a three-week coma. The more and the louder Pret, itsu and any large corporation talk about their good deeds, intentions and charity, the closer you need to take a look.
Since writing about Pret publicly for 4+ years now and all the social media posts I read and boycotts customers announced, one tweet is my alltime favourite tweet that puts down in a nutshell who Pret really are, I could not have said it in any better way:
Betty tweeted this in response to a call to boycott Pret after they made the pandemic temporary paycuts permanent, which came to no surprise to me. And Pret twice this year delayed paying staff, the 2. time using the Queen’s Jubilee bank holiday weekend, knowing the public would be distracted should the press get wind of it and banks are closed on bank holiday Mondays.
I immediately emailed CEO Pano Christou himself, openly copying in journalists including Sarah Butler from the Guardian who then reported on it. She also reported later, recently in August that CEO Pano Christou got a payrise and millions in bonus after cutting staff wages and benefits in 2021 during the height of the pandemic. I predicted that this would be the case back in April on my podcast.
A current Pret staff announced on Instagram that staff now sabotage Pret from within:
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And apart from the extreme under-staffing, even before the pandemic, this sabotaging as well as stressed workers leads to unsafe food practices. Mould and rat droppings on food as well as ongoing mislabelling of food.
I always say that all the slogans Pret have on their walls, all the sweet-talk, the ethical bla bla, all the “charity” Pret announce on their marketing and walls, you can be sure that 9 out of 10 times it’s the complete opposite. And the same goes for itsu. The nonsense Julian Metcalfe always says how much he cares for staff etc. while when you look at him speaking without the sound on, he looks angry, tense, and his words are “strong” to say the least. Clive Schlee is more slick, he was the Ronald McDonald clown for Pret. The smiley mascot hypnotising customers and staff with sweet-talk while having a horribly abusive mystery shopper scheme in place and naming, shaming and blaming shops publicly to the whole company when they fail.
At least Pano already removed the stupid brainwash slogan “lovingly handmade” from the packaging since I’m exposing Pret’s toxic bullying culture and unnecessary high stress. That one got the most on my nerves.
The sheer perversion of Pret’s conduct still has me speechless like it’s straight out of a twisted Hollywood script. I have no other word at the moment than to call this “perversion” what Pret did, my ordeal reaching to the top leadership. It couldn’t have gotten any higher than that. That’s why Pret don’t sue me and Julian Metcalfe upon learning who I am tuck in his tail and ran for the hills. But I have it all in writing. And when people ask why I didn’t go to court, I did, and I explain in detail in my audio interview at the bottom of this page.
I experienced and witnessed it many times as well as reading staff reviews on the favouritism that reigns in Pret while hard working people with skill are dumped like dirt, and the crooked staff take all the credit for the success skilled people bring to the company.
Further in the Telegraph article about Julian’s father David shows how frequent and used Julian was to mingle with the richest people and royalty. And there is then no surprise that he had connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Julian can’t help himself to be set apart from “normal” hard working people, using “lower classes” to advance his rich lifestyle. He doesn’t know it any other way while pretending to care.
Further quote about Julian’s father David: »In particular (David) Metcalfe had a flair for pairing New World entrepreneurs, ambassadors and tycoons with Old World aristocrats, intellectuals, royalty and social commentators. His dining table was frequented as much by dukes and royalty as it was by Detroit and Texas tycoons and politicians from across the political spectrum.«
Julian’s ex-wife is from the USA and is mentioned in Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book. It always comes around full circle. These people mix and mingle with each other, and it all remains with the richest people while claiming to be a trail blazing entrepreneur starting from nothing.
And as far as I have read in my research, I have not found anywhere that Julian mentions his connections to the Royal Family via his father and grandfather. I believe he doesn’t mention it as he wants to be seen as this groundbreaking entrepreneur having started from scratch. Many entitled rich people want to be seen as “self-made” millionaires while having gotten huge starting packages, loans or gifts from family to start or restart a business.
Little side note that I don’t know enough of to get into further, but “ARK” is from a quote on reddit, »Absolute Return for Kids (ARK), is an international children’s educational charity based in the UK. ARK held fundraisers every year from 2002 to 2012. Dozens of people listed from Jeffrey Epstein’s Black Book attended these ARK Galas.«
CHILDREN’S charity and Jeffrey Epstein go together like Pret A Manger/itsu go together with Trade Unions! *Irony off*
Also note, the woman in the picture is Pippa Holt, not Metcalfe’s ex-wife Melanie. This is just what I found in connection with this ARK charity gala event.
Current Pret CEO Pano Christou does the same, having learnt how to BS the public under Clive Schlee, portraying that he started in shops as if to say he started at the bottom. He started in shops alright, but he started as an assistant manager having come from McDonald’s management. Pret’s assistant manager role is position #4 in the shop hierachy. The lowest, #1 position is Team Member; 2. Hot Chef or Barista; 3. Team Leader (kitchen or shop) and then #4 is assistant manager before becoming the shop general manager.
He started with higher pay, £500 business attire that Pret paid for, monthly £50 to dry clean his clothes, “business” travels, management parties and galas, and all the perks that are thrown at assistant managers and higher up management.
Pano did not start at minimum-wage, wearing a Pret uniform and a silly cap with pins that could have dropped into food while staff weren’t allowed to wear jewellery or piercings. He didn’t labour for 9-12 hours in the high paced, noisy kitchen being shouted at by leaders and management. Since I point this out on my blog, he finally mentions in interviews that he started as an assistant manager instead of how he always said that he started “in shops” where people assume he was a low-paid team member.
Back to Metcalfe, many in the press and certainly business people love this success story, not wanting to hear how Metcalfe really is, as “success” often only comes when exploiting the masses and being “someone” regardless what it does to society as a whole.
Maybe Jeffrey Hyman’s friends, who occasionally mention him on Twitter at his birthday or anniversary of his death want to write a book about Hyman and make him known to the world, since Pret and Metcalfe refuse to honour, refuse to even mention him while using Hyman’s original font/sign. If you don’t want to mention or credit to the original person, at least have the integrity to not use anything the original person created as in an old font/sign.
Oh silly me! Pret/itsu and integrity?
Pret remain Pret, they lie, steal, manipulate and exploit in any way they can. Just your good ole greedy corporate, owned by in tax-haven Luxembourg based private equity firm JAB Holdings under the second richest family in Germany, the Reimanns with an extensive Nazi slavery past. And itsu now hooked up with Bridgepoint, Pret’s previous owners. And the real reason that Mectalfe hooked Pret up with McDonald’s was to get Pret into the U.S. market. Once in, they “divorced” their “marriage of convenience”. When I learnt about the McD and Pret collaboration, all alarm bells went on. It’s like a vegan business hooking up with a meat factory to get into a certain market. Red flag right there.
And Pret had to remove the word “natural” from all their marketing after getting slapped by the Advertising Standards Authority … but that’s another story for another day, not to mention Pret selling mouldy food with rat dropping on in 2022, while claiming to “freshly make” years after 2 csutomers died and over 20 got injured which Pret all ignored until it got public, and keep getting away with …
»And when your sun goes down, you’ll know, you’re like everybody else you know.« – Whitey
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UPDATE July 2024
I have observed over time ongoing reviews and complaints of food poisoning in itsu as well as Tesco product recalls of itsu products due to mislabelling.
Two recent reviews. Further complaints see review sites that also complain about dirty shops. Please keep in mind that itsu mainly do sushi (raw fish) and rice, two high risk foods.
itsu’s slogan is “Eat Beautiful”. Not sure how beautiful it is to sit in filthy stores eating spoilt raw fish and hard rice.
Last and least, Metcalfe made former Pret CEO Clive Schlee CEO again, this time for itsu (shops). So far to Schlee’s 2019 “retirement”, sneaking out of Pret.
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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.
I really don’t want to waste a blog post on this guy, but it’s important to show how some people want to be in denial, go against whistleblowers and try all sorts of “tactics” to deny that they don’t care about customer deaths and staff exploitation.
I responded to a tweet that has now been deleted by a Pret customer in Switzerland about Pret opening a new shop there. The person, who on his profile had “Journalist” as well as “Media Personality” stated, said “finally some good sandwiches”.
I replied with a tip to be cautious regarding the “good” sandwiches and posted my blog post with customer complaints on mouldy food etc. all with photo evidence. He then replied with the TYPICAL set of tweets that die-hard Pret fans do. It later turned into silly and also nasty gaslighting, lying, getting his tweets switched that I couldn’t reply anymore.
My response to his now deleted tweet with English translation underneath:
The others who are tweeted in either remained silent or encouraged him to ignore me. Cancel culture as well as enabling behaviour by the book.
Mould, stale bread, rat poo, bugs, flies, hair,plastic in food with photo evidence:
Denial or Tactic #1 – Never happened to “ME”, therefore the problem doesn’t exist:
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“Never happened to me in London” – translated = therefore this problem doesn’t exist (and I don’t care that customers died, and Pret having ignoring it).
My responses are to show further evidence and sharing that in my 10 years in Pret KNOWING Pret from behind the scenes including senior leadership and CEOs, that I’ve seen a lot in Pret. I also link to the customer deaths and so on.
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My tweets can just be followed from above link.
I then tease him saying that he probably doesn’t want Pret to get bad press with all the things I link him to, to which he responds:
I then apologize, which was the mistake, because since then he kept accusing me of offending or attacking him in hopes I would fall for his cheap gaslighting.
The Google translate doesn’t translate well here, I basically said “Of course (not assuming anything). Apoloogies.” etc.
To which I explain again that 1. Pret’s name is still on franchises and Pret THEMSELVES have and continue to screw up in London, UK where Pret are head quartered. And that Pret themselves have ignored TWO customer deaths and over a dozen injuries before it got public. I worked at Pret when people died and wasn’t even told, despite my responsibility having been health & safety.
So, I link him to the two customer deaths in the news on YouTube to have a VISUAL bringing it closer to him, as he is also a father:
Tactic #3 – Sure it’s bad but this would never happen in Switzerland.
“yes bad Clearly. Here in Switzerland, everything is declared everywhere.” = Yes, bad, but that happened way over there in the UK, HERE in perfect Switzerland we have strict food standards.
To which I pointed him AGAIN to a recent customer video from BERLIN, Germany where there are also strict food safety laws, and the video showed how stale the bread is.
I also explained that mouldy food continues to happen in the UK as well as MISLABELLED products where Pret are now breaking the LAW, “Natasha’s Law”.
End of correspondence.
I already packed this tweet exchange away into the past and moved on, when he tweeted the next day a German news article about a woman having bitten into a mouldy McDonald’s product. He now deleted this tweet also, like he deleted his initial “fan” tweet about “good sandwiches” in Pret. But here are my responses to his ridiculous McD comparison.
Tactic #4– It’s not only Pret, it’s also other businesses, therefore this is “normal” in large chains:
Tactic #5 – Continued gaslighting accusing me of offending and attacking him in hopes I become insecure, while it is HIM that’s insecure like heck:
Just follow the links and click translate otherwise the post gets too long.
I kept asking him to give precise examples where I offended or attacked him. That didn’t come. And by then he could have just blocked me. But instead he switched his replies to me so that I couldn’t reply anymore, while he kept tweeting at me. Very nasty, cowardly and childish behaviour by an adult “journalist” and “media personality” from Switzerland.
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Tactic #6 – SEVERAL things: He deleted information, was embarrassed to behave so poorly while a journalist, then lied he never claimed to be a journo.
DELETED “Journalist” off his profile after I addressed him as a journalist having seen his claim on his profile and asked him to not take things personal. He then lied that he never claimed to have been a journalist and asks me to check his profile where he just deleted “Journalist”. I pointed out to him that I already checked it and that he deleted it off his profile. He now added it again, see screenshots.
This is then when he started to make all his replies to me “non-repliable” anymore (I just made up that word 😉 ), but he continued to tweet at me. I then blocked him to which he blocked as well. He said that I am an Aldi fan because I gave a metaphor on Aldi vs Lidl to explain his ridiculous comparison between McDonald’s and Pret. I explained that Pret claimed to be fresh and wholesome which McDonald’s never claimed, and that the whole world knows how bad McD is. But Pret was successful in fooling the public for decades.
He then tried to trick me with the Aldi example and then I couldn’t reply anymore. But I replied later via my other account after screenshot some of his tweets before he deleted.
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Unable to reply to his tweets:
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His behaviour is a typical bullying behaviour by the book. And he is enabled by others who pad him on the back.
He received tons of information about my own story as well as customer fatalities and injuries, staff exploitation etc., yet he pretends to not understand what all this was about. Then he deletes his initial tweet and the McDonald’s tweet as he was caught out being indifferent and doesn’t want to be seen as a journalist who is a big fan of Pret.
In a nutshell, this guy was shocked and impressed to have come across so much evidence in how bad Pret really are. Many people respond negatively because they feel shocked and called out to have fallen for Pret. He was so occupied with it that he tweeted the McDonald’s mould issue to me the next day where I was already finished and done with this feed.
But I always respond to anyone and then move on. And I don’t really want to waste a blog post on him, but want to show how SLICK gaslighting, lying, deleting, accusing etc. works in cancel culture.
It’s a shame, because I am more disappointed of people claiming to be journalists than the average Joe who rants on social media.
The last time I came across such a toxic, gaslighting, cowardly person with lofty claims was literally the top Pret senior leadership team. This Gerry guy cowardly switched his tweets so I can’t respond anymore, but kept tweeting at me while I couldn’t respond. Then I blocked him, which I rarely do, so that he can’t continue to tweet while I can’t respond.
I then tweeted my response to him via my other account and now write this blog post and pass this on to his journalism buddies because his and my correspondence are public.
This was TYPICAL denial, cancel culture, trying to manipulate JUST because the person did not want to look objectively at what I presented as huge evidence including customer pictures, news articles, my own experience. THE worst thing that can happen that customers died and Pret IGNORED it has NO meaning to this Gerry guy and his friends. They are bystanders, onlookers and enablers who don’t care except if this would happen to them. Very sad.
And by all means, mute or block me, but to “silence” me and then keep tweeting at me where I can’t respond is COWARDLY. And this is why I call this guy out now.
If this Gerry guy says anything “positive” about his encounter with me in the future, stay away, be cautious, he has lied and played his tricks like an insecure yes-man.
Oh, und Gerry, guck mal wer alles von Twitter weggerannt ist nachdem ich getweeted hab 😉
Du hast noch sehr, sehr viel zu lernen was Pret A Manger betrifft, und ich habe dich jetzt angespornt Pret zu helfen deren Fassade aufrecht zu halten. Ran an die Arbeit, Gerry! Put your name to Pret and STAND behind everything they do, with your name.
I chased Pret RE-founder Julian Metalfe, former Pret CEO Clive Schlee and current CEO Pano Christou off Twitter. And Julian Metcalfe is in Jeffrey Epstein’s address book. Link in the YouTube description.
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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 witnessed by customers: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret. 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.
FINALLY they have realized that the “Pret Index” is bullsh!t
Update below!
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Days before the Queen’s platinum Jubilee weekend I was contacted by someone informing me that Pret delayed paying their lowest paid shop staff for the second time this year.
Cleverly using the bank holiday weekend knowing the press and the public would be distracted with the celebrations. I contacted journalists, including Sarah Butler from the Guardian. Actually, I emailed Pret’s CEO Pano Christou, openly copying in journalists and Ian Hodson from the BFAWU union whom Sarah later asked to comment. I included the info I was given as Pret staff always reach out to me with important issues, knowing I write about it and pass it on to the press.
Part of a DM I was sent and passed it on to the press:
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Shortly after, Sarah Butler reported on it, but of course it got drowned out in the news due to the Jubilee celebrations. Sarah Butler also reported on a strike action plan I tagged her in last year, and this started an uprising of customers who called for boycotts. But Pret being Pret, using the bank holiday weekend as people are distracted was a clever move. There was no uprising this time.
But I want to point to another reason why I believe that Pret used the Jubilee weekend to not pay staff on time. On 22.06.2022 I saw some info via Propel that Pret’s sales have risen, also during the Jubilee weekend.
I am not business savvy and don’t understand business matters too well, but I know Pret very well. I know their mentality, their tricks, their sweet-talk in charity, the environment and safety issues versus how it is in reality.
I know that when there are systemic issues in a company, group or family, it always comes from the top, “the fish stinks from its head”.
For one, how can sales be up 88% to pre-pandemic levels when more and more customers boycott Pret, with many vowing to never set foot inside Pret again after learning how Pret exploit staff. Plus, shops have shorter opening times due to lack of staff. How do they throw around with figures like that?
How about a closer look?
I cannot count the number of times when manager after manager in shop after shop in my 10 years, in over 30 shops in Pret, “forgot” to pay me the odd hour here and there. The same with colleagues who would approach me as I was the team leader, complaining that the manager didn’t pay their full hours AGAIN. Often a new team member was too scared to speak to the moody or angry manager, so they came to me and I spoke to the manager on their behalf. But I also encouraged the colleague to not be afraid as they are not doing anything wrong, but the manager is!
I say with certainty that this was on purpose in shop after shop. This was especially clear when staff were sent home earlier then scheduled and managers QUICKLY adjusted the hours where staff worked less, but often “forgot” to adjust the hours in the system when staff worked longer than scheduled! Many staff don’t even check their hours and never notice that the odd hour or two hasn’t been paid, ESPECIALLY when they helped out in another shop for a day.
I kept a spreadsheet at home and marked it daily in my phone calendar how many hours I worked EACH day. Then I checked the pay and it was literally almost on a weekly basis that at least 15 minutes to an hour was missing.
Pret managers do this on purpose to not pay the odd 15 minutes to make the staff feel embarrassed to ask for the 15 minute pay. But after a while I DID demand to be paid to the minute as this became the rule rather than exception to “steal” pay/hours from us.
Do the math, if you are looking after a shop of 25 – 30 staff members, take an hour here and there from most of them every week. It is 20 – 30 hours every week that you profit from by “forgetting” to pay. It all adds up.
The same with last week’s pay. I myself have not been paid for a whole week when I left Pret. When a team member starts in Pret, they don’t get paid for the first week. They get the first week pay on the end of week two. And then when they leave, Pret forgets to pay it back.
Managers and assistant managers are on a monthly fixed payroll. But Pret exploit them as well by making them work overtime without extra pay.
Shop managers are constantly pressured to produce numbers and reach targets. They cater to the area managers (operation managers OPs). OPs cater to head office and their heads. And CEO Pano Christou of course caters to owners JAB Holdings (Reimann family) and share holders.
The systemic and systematic issue of not paying staff their full hours worked is a huge issue in Pret, as it may be in many low-wage companies.
It was especially noticeable that managers “forgot” to pay when we neared the end of a quarter where managers and higher ups get their bonuses. Pret also has the “premiership” where shops compete for the top shop spot, being the #1 shop in all of Pret. I worked in shops where we became top shop, and often #2 and in the top 10. This of course means a sh!tload of bonus for managers and also regognition to be on the top.
Every quarter Pret holds a “quarter brief” where these shops are mentioned and where the CEO mentions specific managers. A gala is held and money blown out with expensive food and booze for the top people. while the lowest paid workers paid the price for it. Also, trips to Dubai, Paris, Las Vegas for managers and higher ups under the guise of “seminars” and team building while shop staff crumble.
The following review from New York is worth quoting outside the screenshot:
»They spend (waste) lots of money on dinners for themselves and “leadership conferences” that are really just excuses to party in Orlando or Vegas. “Business” trips to Boston and Chicago are really expensed vacations for their families. The Brits have taken over NYC. Pret has brought over many managers and leaders form the UK and ‘beheaded’ many of the US employees who built the brand to make room for them.
In the USA people don’t mess around much and go straight to court, while in the UK and Europe the legal system is different, not as much in favour of plaintiffs. Most workers don’t even entertain the thought to raise a complicated and expensive lawsuit. So, they give up, bear under the burden or just leave.
Former CEO Clive Schlee left with this legacy:
And current CEO Pano Christou is continuing it:
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Twice in the USA Pret settled lawsuits for “wage theft” where Pret “shaved off” (rounded down) pay. Twice Pret repaid approximately 4000 workers a combined $1 million. More info: Wage Theft in Pret.
And speaking of “deal bonus” posted on Twitter by Clive Schlee, I write about the reason WHY Schlee made the £1000 bonus announcement to all staff back then. It came as a response after he was made aware of my blog in the eve of making this announcement. More info with proof: The Day Clive Schlee had a Bright “Idee”.
And now the Pret executives have become bolder, DIRECTLY taking from workers instead of before via the “middle-men” of OPs and shop managers. Pret now directly claim to have had “payroll error” delaying to pay staff.
Sarah Butler’s report after I contacted her and others:
McDonald’s had a 30% stake in Pret in the early 2000s for Pret to get their foot into the US market. Once in, they divorced their “marriage of convenience” shortly after. But this should have rung alarm bells for the press and public. Pret, who claim to be healthy and ethical hooking up with McDonald’s just leaves behind a bitter taste. And CEO Pano Chrsitou having come from McDonald’s, where he was a manager (started as an assistant manager in Pret with all the perks, NOT a low-wage team member), is now turning Pret further and further into a McDonald’s style business.
We all heard of horrifying instances where low-wage fast-food staff spit into customers’ food. I doubt a Pret staff would do that, BUT staff are now internally striking, literally striking back and sabotaging Pret from within.
From Instagram
Also, the same person:
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I explained later to above person that it DOES matter if Pret “only” delay pay for a day. Pret’s financial week starts on Fridays. Weekly staff are paid on Thursdays. So, paying staff 1 day late on a Friday means Pret has a new budget to work with to present better numbers of the previous week to JAB, shareholders and now the Pret Index. Just as I explained above that managers take an hour here and there, if a staff member notices this, the manager then repays it the following week. I had a sneaky manager put me on three day sick leave in the system, while I was only sick for two days. A full 7 hours were missing from my pay. He profusely apologized, but then asked me if he can repay 1 hour per week. I was new to Pret and naive and agreed! I should have demanded the full 7 hour pay then and there which Pret can do.
When I was off sick leave for 3 months during bereavement and the bullying environment, David Carter from HR met me to offer the first of 4 settlements if I sign an NDA. As I was off sick and without pay, I asked David to meet me at a cafe close to my home as I couldn’t afford the bus fare to HQ. David came and immediately took advantage of my financial struggles by offering me money in return for me to resign and sign an NDA. But to appear supportive in case of a court case later, he also offered me £300 as a good will gesture and gift. I smelled a rat but accepted the £300 gift. I didn’t want Pret to later say in court that they offered money but I rejected Pret’s offer of help and therefore have no grounds to sue them. Pret also paid for counselling but the bullying continued. After a year of no support and bullying, then having contacted the CEO, only then did some support come in while the bullying continued.
But later when I arrived home, within an hour, I had £300 in my bank account from Pret. Pret and companies in general CAN pay within minutes. This was in 2016 and David told me to take a while to think about the settlement offer which I later declined. Part of the email which he put into writing, I believe in case for court:
And yes, the funds appeared within an hour.
My former manager wanted to spread out the 7 hours pay over several weeks to reach targets. And this is what I mean regarding the Pret Index and using the end of a quarter or a specific event like the Queen’s Jubilee to delay pay.
And now even more than ever before, I fear for food safety. As if Pret need more customer deaths and injuries, shops serve expired, mouldy, stale food with insects, rat droppings, hair etc. Pret also keep mislabeling due to under-staffing and with it now break “Natasha’s Law” which was implemented in October 2021, five years after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died from a baguette containing unlabelled sesame she was allergic to. The second customer, mother of 5, Celia Marsh died of dairy in a vegan wrap. And further dozen plus got injured over several years, including after the two deaths and Pret doing NOTHING until this became public.
Ongoing mislabeling of course is due to the extreme under-staffing which happened already before the pandemic. The pandemic just made everything worse and Pret, instead of putting on the brakes and rebuild the brand with QUALITY, they rush ahead with dodgy practices and aggressive expansion plans to please JAB and share-holders.
Blog link with more pictures of mouldy food than I used in the YouTube slide below: Pret Food is NOT Fresh. It all comes around full circle.
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After having received cash injections from JAB Holding (£185million) and shareholders (£100m and later again £200m) Pret are tasked to open 200 shops worldwide in the next 2 years.
Bridgepoint bought Pret in 2008, I started in Pret mid 2008 and never even knew Pret. But since 2008 I noticed Pret shops popping up at every corner in London. Later I learnt that Bridgepoint tasked Pret to open 15 shops per year. Link to “Case Study“.
And I can tell you we FELT the SQUEEZE! Now, I don’t know Pret in any other way than being back-breaking work for little money. But I kept hearing in the early months of working at Pret that colleagues who worked pre-2008 kept saying Pret has become stricter, harder, more unfair etc.
And now, with JAB, the squeeze got even worse. Tasking Pret to open 200 shops in 2 years … good luck shop workers AND customers! Of course Pret moved more into franchising. But being desperate to please JAB and shareholders after the cash injection and the task to speed-open shops worldwide, they directly now stoop even lower from their castle to the slave pit, and take from low-wage staff like using workers as a piggy bank or bank to loan money from without being charged interest.
And of course Pret wants more investors, and most people outside the UK either don’t know the scandals in Pret or still think of the “old” Pret with the happy facade. Business people and investors read Bloomberg with the Pret Index showing rising numbers that also came during the Queen’s Jubilee weekend. And passionate business people drool over the Pret Index. So, what better time to “borrow” money from the lowest paid workers to have rising numbers, than during the Jubilee to pimp up the Pret Index to lure in possible investors.
In a nutshell, Pret KEEP ripping staff off, y’all, just like they rip customers off via the coffee subscription, apps, special offer deals etc.
Pret’s shady practices on a variety of issues:
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Spain’s response to Pret’s plan to open:
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From Facebook
Ireland’s response:
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Pano Christou’s 2020 pay was £300,000 PLUS millions in bonus. He didn’t reveal how much pay he got 2021 and 2022 after cutting wages, benefits, paid break etc. during the pandemic, keep taking from staff having made temporary pandemic cuts permanent. But if he had cut his wages like he did to staff, he would have announced it as Pret are quick to announce “charity” events. For me it is safe to assume he receives the same pay if not more. And by the way, Christou is paid more, double than the UK Prime Minister and gets the same pay as US President Biden. Katchink!
My podcast episode on this:
I could go on and on and on and on and on, but mark my words, food safety is already highly compromised and will not get better with this aggressive expansion and labour issues. I know what I’ve seen and experienced in Pret. I know what staff tell and send me. And I see the ongoing complaints on social media, including food poisoning websites reporting on every increasing issues of food poisoning issuespeople report.
To the WordPress staff who always check the blog posts that I do, you can inform Pret all day long, I can see how you check each post when I publish it. WordPress has moved my blog into the “adult” section where they move pornography sites to. A WordPress staff, they brainwashing-ly call “happiness engineer”, (yuck!) told me it’s been moved. And when I checked the rules they linked me to, all I can see is that they move porn sites there. So, they use this excuse to censor my free speech. Pret most likely contacted WordPress and the platform bowed to pressure by hiding my blog within its platform. This means, WordPress users who are logged into WordPress cannot find my blog on the internal “reader” platform. When people use the internal WordPress reader search button, put “pret a manger” in search, my site cannot be found/seen. Same with any other social media platform restricting my posts. So far to free speech and whistleblowers being protected, hey. 🖕
What do Pret have to hide, I wonder …
UPDATE 2025
The “Pret Index” has been finally ditched!!!
The Telegraph article on Pret not paying their bills, even if it’s just a small amount for Pret. But it’s a principle:
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Quote from the Telegraph article: “Pret stopped supplying the ONS with data last October [2024]. A spokesman claimed it no longer accurately reflected the company’s performance.”
Dear spokesman, it NEVER reflected the company’s perfomance accurately. As aformer Pret team leader, i knew that bullsh!t when it came out and observed how the numbers kept changing at will, depending what narrative Pret needed out.
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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.
For more reviews of shop managers, OPs managers and HQ staff (and it’s not good!) on Pret’s leadership between 2020 – September 2023, please see Pano Christou’s Reputation post. And even those are just the tip of the iceberg.
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2021 text from here on out.
Pano Christou has his own story in how he applied for a job at Pret 20 odd years ago and was rejected. Some time later he reapplied and was accepted. He climbed up the “ladder” and was the shadow of Clive Schlee for a few years. As Schlee’s time was coming to an end after two customers died and the new owners JAB took over, Pano as UK Managing Director briefly stepped into a new role of COO that was created as a stepping stone to become the new CEO. The role of COO didn’t exist before that and doesn’t currently exist in Pret.
What Pano Christou is not telling people immediately is that he started in Pret as an Assistant Manager, having come from McDonald’s as a Manager. Managers from other companies always start as Assistant Managers in Pret. Never as a Team Member from the bottom and not as a shop Manager.
What people who have never worked at Pret don’t understand is that the structure in Pret is extremely complex and micromanaging. Pret advertises that 95% of Pret Managers have started at the bottom in Pret. Funny, because a few years ago the numbers were 80-something %. And yet, it should be normal that most, if not all Managers grow from within the company.
Pret’s career path is super complex.
If you REALLY start at the bottom on the shop floor or kitchen, you start at a little over minimum wage, but have to work for it 3 times over and have to wait YEARS to get a pay-rise.
It takes THREE position to even reach the Assistant Manager role that Pano Christou started with.
Team Member (and after 10-ish days Team Member Star – ignore that one, it’s just psychology!)
NEXT Level:
Barista or Hot Chef or Kitchen Team Member Trainer (in my time Pret had the role of Shift Runner between 2008-ish and 2015)
NEXT Level:
Team Leader (either Kitchen Leader or Floor Leader)
NEXT Level:
And THEEENN when you went through those “hurdles” you might have had a chance to become an Assistant Manager (mostly of the Kitchen, sometimes of the Floor).
Mind you, these positions, especially from Assistant Manager (AM) onward are very coveted of course! Staff get their elbows out and screw each other over for this position like in every job. Some even rise up the ranks via the bedroom. This you’ll expect in a law firm, and certainly politics and Hollywood, but a sandwich chain? Really? Alright!
What makes the AM position so attractive is that they delegate to the Team Leaders, who really do the hard work and run the shops, bossing the Team Leaders around and blaming them for everything. The AM is the filling of the sandwich between General Manager (GM) and Team Leader (TL) bossing Team Members around and yet not being responsible. The AM isn’t as responsible as the General Manager (GM) is. Perfect spot to be in. Bossing people around, yet not being responsible. Pret within the company is known for having too many “leaders” who struggle for the top position while Pret top leadership enjoy throwing crumbs to them to fight over.
To better see the text in the below screenshots, please click “ctrl and +” (ctrl and plus) and to decrease again “ctrl and -” (ctrl and minus) or click on the links underneath the screenshots.
After Assistant Manager comes the General Manager (GM), then Group Manager responsible for about 4 – 5 shops in an area, then Operations (Area) Manager (or OPs) of about 10 -14 shops in an area, and then you just fly so high you forget where you came from! And here’s where it’s ALL about the money.
What is so attractive to the AM role is that this is where the money starts to flow and where people will have to “prove” if they belong to the ELITE of the top Management who reap all the harvest that the “slaves” below them labour for. And yet again, even the AM and GM still have to prove if they belong to the ELITE of the top leadership of Pret. And yet, GMs and AMs increasingly complain on Glassdoor and Indeed that their contracted hours (used to be 42.5 per week) now 35 hours p/w on the payroll, but they work at least 60 hours as unpaid overtime. GMs and AMs are as exploited as TMs are.
When a staff becomes an AM, at least in my time and Pano Christou’s time, they got £500 from Pret to go shopping for business attire. Then they got £50 a month for the dry cleaning bill of their business attire, insurance, extra holidays, more quarterly bonus, SICK PAY (that’s a big one!), executive parties, a loan from Pret for annual travel which costs 10 months for a 12 month annual ticket … and a host of other benefits. This is pre-Covid of course. But I’m painting a picture of Pano Christou’s “rags to riches” (shop floor) beginnings in Pret.
Pano did not start on minimum wage plus a few pennies and working triple for it with a Team Leader or AM down his neck. He surely wore a Pret uniform for a month plus / minus to “experience” how it is to REALLY start at the bottom.
A £500 wardrobe and £50 a month to dry clean it, sick pay … and all the stuff they showered on you until you realized, you’d better get higher because the shop floor sucks!
In a nutshell, Pano Christou started at position number 4 on the shop floor, NOT at the bottom!
#4 Assistant Manager (the real benefits and money start here 🏆🏆🏆 )
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A GM review, quote:
»Amazing in the beginning – showered with benefits and entitlements and opportunities to advance. Terrible once you see how horribly mismanaged and micromanaged the company is. Zero care for human beings and nothing but boosting sales and company growth.«
And here again, yes Pret pays a little more than the competition, also because Pret has the kitchen production that are mini sandwich factories, and staff have to slave double and triple for it and don’t get a pay-rise in years! Pret has no choice to pay a little more because if they would pay McDonald’s wages NO-ONE would work at Pret as it is too micro managing, back breaking work, a bullying environment and very complex!
And it’s a dead give-away that it took Pano 23 years to reach CEO level! I pressured former CEO and Pano’s mentor Clive Schlee on Twitter to step down after he and Pano (when UK Managing Director) ignored two customer deaths and 20+ injuries before it got public. Reluctantly Schlee “retired” to spare him the embarrassment of a resignation. He is on the board and own half of itsu with his body Pret RE-founder Julian Metcalfe.I wrote a small exposé on Metcalfe, his connection to the Royal Family and how I chased him off Twitter.
If the mounting pressure to step down would not have happened from several on social media, Schlee would still be CEO. And Pano now is stuck in the old Pret-way and is not at all inventive, but bows to the pressure to expand fast to the ongoing detriment of quality and safety.
Pret is very good in making simple things very complicated! So, the little higher wage is the carrot on the stick. It’s a trap to lure people into working at Pret and then they get stuck believing and hoping that “one day” it may get better … And when the carrot has shriveled up, staff are too exhausted to recognize the bullsh!t for what it is.
Pano’s “popularity” on review sites and the legacy Clive Schlee leaves behind:
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UPDATE 2026 (5 years later!): Scores for Pano Christou and Pret, more than double the amount of reviews, but not much improvement:
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From Rags to Riches, the Pret A Manger “Love Treatment”
“Lovingly” handmade … (… and brainwashed)
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Bonus: Pano Christou putting his Emotional Labour into effect to spill some numbers after the first lock-down in a leaked video I received from a Pret staff and have passed on to the BBC:
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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. 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, and was mentioned by the BBC.
Ever wondered why Pret staff refuse to say “double” espresso and why Pret advertises as “strong” espresso, or “make it strong”? Let me spill the coffee beans!
This pertains to all espresso based drinks like “strong latte”, “strong cappuccino” etc. I will just refer to all espresso drinks as espresso or shot.
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Upfront, I’ve always been gobsmacked to see when a customer speaks down on a Team Member, who often is a foreigner. In above instance of Tim Bentinck who arrogantly ends his Tweet with, “Long discussion on use of English ensues”.
Well, read on and learn WHY the Team Member insisted on calling it a “strong” espresso, smarty-pants! Because if the TM would have called it a double espresso, he/she would have gotten in trouble! Has nothing to do with workers’ lack of English! And before anyone criticizes my English, because that’s what people do when they run out of arguments, English is not my first language. I learnt English as an adult, and I think I’m doing pretty well!
I am not up to date on the prices of an “extra” shot of espresso in any cafè or chain. So, for the sake of example I just use 50p for an extra shot at any or all cafès.
In most, if not all cafès/chains if you want an extra shot of espresso you will pay 50p on top of the regular espresso drink you ordered. So far so good.
But what does Pret do? They charge you 50p for HALF a shot, NOT a full espresso shot. Other brands charge 50p for a full extra espresso shot where Pret delivers half a shot and that’s why they call it NOT “double” espresso/shot but “strong” espresso/shot.
In other brands a double espresso is TWO full shots of espresso.
In Pret they would do false advertisement if they’d call it “double”, so they make it 1.5 shots of espresso and call it “strong”. Pret plays with psychology and assumption while never claiming to serve 2 full shots.
Customers ASSUME that “make it strong” for an extra 50p they get an extra full shot. Nopes. They get an extra HALF shot. The buttons on Pret’s Cimbali machines are programmed to grind a certain amount of grams for 1 full espresso shot and the other “strong” button has a slightly higher weight but not 2 full shots.
This picture is of one of Cimbali’s machines who supply Pret with coffee machines. The left button grinds for 1 shot of espresso, the 2. or 3. button grinds for 1.5 shots. If I remember right it is the 3. button that pours out 1.5 shots of espresso. The 2. button is void and doesn’t do anything. This is so that coffee makers don’t accidently press button #2 for single espresso while in a rush, meaning losing money.
To TRULY get a double espresso, the coffee maker would have to press button number 1 twice. On a rare occasion when a customer asks for a triple shot, the coffee maker pressed button #1 (= 1 shot) and then button #3 (= 1.5 shots) meaning the customer gets 2.5 NOT 3 shots. Try it out next time you are in Pret. A barista/coffee maker who cares for customers would press TWICE button #3 (strong shot) to give you a triple shot.
Also, little side-note, see how small the working space is that staff have to work with. Pret have always decreased space for staff: small staff rooms, small kitchens, HUGE space for customers (= £££), large space for equipment and products, but the smallest working space for staff. I cannot count the amount of times I myself and the coffee makers tipped the piping hot milk jugs off the working counter in the middle of crazy morning coffee rush, burning our hands, legs, feet as there was no space to work safely.
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This is also the reason why staff are instructed to NOT pour a “strong” espresso into the small single shot espresso cup. Because if they do, the customer would see that a strong fits into the small cup and would get suspicious that this is indeed NOT 2 shots, but 1.5 shots.
And here’s an ironic example of a white “strong” (perceived as double) espresso. It even has space for milk very comfortably in a SINGLE shot espresso cup!
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Above single shot cup (with a strong shot inside perceived as double shot) versus the 8oz cup where Pret serves strong shots to hide how stingy it is. The 8oz cup is also used for Pret’s Flat White for the same price as Pret’s 12oz Latte/Cappuccino 😉
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I drew a rough line where the “strong” espesso measures. And I measured it GENEROUSLY!
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A larger cup gives the illusion that there are 2 or a double shot. A larger cup gives the illusion that they NEED a larger cup so that a “double” fits in, while a single shot cup holds 1.5 shot very comfortably, even with added milk!
And Pret again plays with psychology and customers’ self-doubt, who give Pret the benefit of the doubt. Even though a “strong” espresso in the larger 8oz cup looks pretty stingy, the customer assumes that because the cup is larger, it just seems stingy. Well, it truly IS stingy!
UPDATE 2023: Countless complaints on Pret’s coffee and Pret being named the worst coffee shop at one point:
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TRUST your senses!
Again, Pret is not doing anything wrong or illegal, they just do what they do best: play with psychology and people’s assumptions.
If you doubt about the amount of espresso, go to any Pret, buy 2x single espressos and 1 strong espresso. So, get 3 drinks in 3 cups, 2 single espressos and 1 strong espresso.
The strong espresso will be served in an 8oz cup (unless they run out). Whatever cup you’ll get the strong espresso, ask the server for this same EMPTY cup, but don’t tell the server why.
Then pour the 2 single espressos into that same size (8oz) empty cup and compare the strong espresso 8oz cup to the 2 single espressos in the other 8oz cup.
And then go to Caffè Nero where you get a regular latte, cappuccino etc. with 2 shots by default and any brand who advertise AND serve double espresso without the BS terminology and psychology that Pret use to fool customers with since decades.
You can also do a different experiment. Ask for a “strong espresso in a single espresso (small) cup”. If the Team Member is new, he/she will order it the way you ask. But then then Barista (if they’re experienced) will refuse to make it in the single shot cup. You can then ask why not. The Barista/Team Leader/Manager will fight tooth and nail to avoid having to tell you that they don’t use a single shot cup for a reason. They may even lie, saying that the single shot cup is too small!
But you can ask them to do it anyway! They might do it or not. But if they do it in the single cup, you can then ask why a strong shot fits into a single shot cup etc. Again, they will fight tooth and nail to avoid telling you that it is in reality 1.5 shots or even less, not 2 shots. They probably will never tell you that to avoid longer discussions.
You can then ask how many grams a single shot of espresso has versus a strong shot, and do your calculations from there.
A former Pret Barista also confirms this about a “strong” DECAFF shot:
(Please not, my previous Twitter/X handle was @LateNightGirlMe and I have since changed to @expretDOTorg.)
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In my 10 years in Pret (mostly as a shop Team Leader/management) I had only ONE customer who knew about this. In a very calm but assertive way he specifically asked for: “TWO separate shots of espresso in one cup charged as a strong espresso, please“. He often had a cheeky smile while ordering, which I returned! No problem, sir!
My Manager hated that customer, but gave in as an exception. The customer was such a regular and VERY persistent on this, that we already informed any new staff member to accept his request before he even entered the shop. So, good luck to the rest of ya!
Finally, do the math yourself! If you have 1 cup of strong espresso every day for a year at Pret, plus minus holidays etc. Monday to Friday. You would get 360 cups of 1.5 shots versus 480 double / 2 shots. Meaning, you get 360 individual espresso shots vs. 480 individual shots. Probably less as you have to subtract holidays. But I just leave it at this over a 5 work-day week, 4 week month and 12 months year.
The mind-game is, you were “cheated” out of 120 shots of espresso annually, plus minus via psychology and terminology! And Pret would put the fault at you for making assumptions as they do not advertise double shots. And they’d be right!
That’s why the coffee margin at Pret compared to their food is through the roof! They make a sh!tload of money from coffee as the highest profit to any other product. And a cup of, let’s say latte, for companies like Pret including cup, lid, milk, labour etc. is no more then about 30p plus minus. That is also why I have always questioned HOW Pret’s coffee can be organic, because they get it so cheap.
Pret already informed an inquiring customer that their coffee isn’t fair-trade anymore. And to be frank, I simply don’t believe that Pret pays “sometimes” more than fair-trade as it’s claimed here in the Facebook response. It’s just typical Pret bla-bla and 99.9% of customers swallow everything Pret tells them. Really sad!
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Bottom line, if Pret would advertise double or extra shot, but serve 1.5 shots, they’d get in legal trouble, at least with the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK that slapped Pret already regarding their “natural” food claim.
Ever wondered why the word “natural” has disappeared off all Pret’s signage and packaging? Here’s why, that was truly false advertisement: Pret A Manger – Ready to (ch)eat.
But with the “strong” espresso display, Pret’s not doing anything wrong or illegal. In other brands you’d get a full extra shot or 480 shots for the same additional 50p price (or whatever price it is now), as they advertise double or extra shot.
Support small independent businesses!
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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 be aware that the player shows 0:00 as WordPress sometimes “messes” with my blog. Just press play or go straight to the interview on Adam’s page).
Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 
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