Returning office workers lift Pret’s London sales

Pret's near return to pre-pandemic levels in London’s finance district contrasts with reduced footfall in US cities die to fresh Covid outbreaks | Photo credit: Marco Verch via Flickr

The return of London workers to offices has helped push Pret A Manger sales in the capital’s financial districts close to pre-pandemic levels, according to Bloomberg's Pret Index.
 

Although trading progress is likely to be hampered by a raft of strikes affecting rail lines and London’s Underground network, the latest Bloomberg Pret Index reports that sales of coffee and sandwiches in the City and Canary Wharf are now 88% of pre-Covid-19 levels.  

Bloomberg says the data indicates that lunch break footfall is returning to normal levels in areas where London’s finance, corporate law and asset management companies are located. 

The near return to pre-pandemic levels in London’s finance district contrasts with poor Pret US sales on Wall Street, where return-to-office plans and Pret’s wider business in downtown New York have been impacted by a recent wave of Covid-19 infections.  

Bloomberg reports downtown New York sales at 53% of pre-pandemic levels, with New York City midtown, more popular with tourists, at 65%. 

In September 2021, Pret introduced a coffee subscription service in the US following a successful rollout across the UK to offset reduced footfall to its more traditional stores. 

Pret sales in London remain steady in the West End, with sales in the capital’s arts, entertainment and shopping districts in line with pre-pandemic trading. Meanwhile Pret’s suburban trading and airport sales continue to exceed pre-pandemic levels, at a fifth and a third higher respectively. 

Bloomberg’s Pret Index also reports the coffee and food-to-go business in Paris as being at the heighest level since the beginning of the pandmeic and just shy of normal.