Pret sales rise as offices fill up

Pret A Manger’s sales of coffee and sandwiches were 88% of pre-Covid-19 levels through last Thursday (16 June) in London City and Canary Wharf, according to the latest figures tracked by Bloomberg’s Pret Index.

Bloomberg said this a sign that the lunch hour is almost completely back to normal in clusters populated by scores of finance, corporate law and asset management professionals.

The return of London’s bankers to offices last week following school vacations and UK national holidays pushed transactions at Pret A Manger Ltd in the capital’s financial districts close to a pandemic high.

Overall, the UK index improved by 8% week-on-week due to lapping the extended bank holiday in the prior week, with growth in all grouping apart from London airports as people returned back to the office after the school holidays.

However, sales in London’s airport terminals are approximately a third higher than it was before the crisis, despite chaos brought on by recent flight cancellations and delays.

Transactions are back also above pre-pandemic levels in the West End arts, entertainment and shopping districts after falling slightly in the two weeks prior due to the UK national holidays.

Pret’s transactions in London train stations are reportedly back to normal as residents return to offices and the city to shop and dine. Footfall levels across London were back to their normalised trend, with London City Worker and London Suburban segments showing the strongest growth week-on-week.

Outside of London, Bloomberg also recorded “significant” week-on-week increases for Pret, rising 16% in Manchester and 9% in regional towns.

On the other hand, sales are limping on Wall Street, where return-to-office plans and Pret’s business in downtown New York have been impacted by a recent wave of infections.

Meanwhile, transactions in New York’s Midtown entertainment and business district are reportedly faring better as tourists head into the city for the summer, at almost two-thirds of pre-Covid levels.

Pret’s business in Paris is also at a “pandemic high” and just shy of normal, and transactions in Hong Kong are recovering after being heavily impacted by a surge in infections during the spring.

Pret is providing weekly data to Bloomberg about its sales across major business hubs on an exclusive basis. The Pret Index is calculated against a baseline from January 2020, before the pandemic upended the cities tracked, and compares transaction data starting from 8 March against the average from that month.