Pret A Manger opens first Irish store on Friday, with more expected ‘very quickly’

Coffee and sandwich franchise Pret A Manger expects to open more Irish stores “very quickly” after its first outlet here – on Dublin’s Dawson Street – opens for business on Friday. The group announced plans earlier this year to expand into Ireland for the first time with the establishment of 20 shops and the creation of about 500 jobs over the next decade. The store on Dawson Street will generate 25 jobs.

Guy Meakin, interim managing director for the UK and Ireland, said on Wednesday the chain had been waiting to enter the Irish market for “a number of years”.

“Throughout the pandemic we evaluated our business model and where we wanted to grow going forward,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we could bring Pret to more people, and not just follow the skyscraper model which we had pre-Covid.

“We used to follow the skyscrapers when we were opening shops – going where the workers were. The city of London has a number of Prets because of all the workers there, whereas now we want to go where the people are. So this is part of that strategy, making sure we can get to more and more people. More people are working from home.”

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He added that they would “open a few [more stores] very quickly”, and that they would appear nationwide. “We’ve got high hopes for this shop and think it will be a big success. Our data is giving us confidence that footfall is growing and therefore we think this is a good opportunity for us.”

The stores are opening as part of a deal with Carebrook Partnership, one of Pret’s longest-serving franchise partners having worked with the business for 30 years, overseeing many shops in London, including in Camden, Belsize Park and Finchley. The franchise agreement follows Pret’s announcement last year that it would aim to double the size of the business within five years, including launching into five new markets by the end of 2023.

Pret said it is planning to roll out full ingredient labelling to shops in both the Republic and Northern Ireland as part of its allergy plan. Full ingredient labels will be rolled out on all freshly-made products to ensure that customers have the information they need.