Pret’s entry into the UK’s premium self-serve coffee market was first announced in October 2021 | Photo credit: JDE Professional

Pret A Manger has announced plans to roll-out its Pret Express service to more than 50 locations across the UK by the end of the year. 
 

The UK coffee and food-to-go chain launched the 24/7, on-the-go self-service concept at three sites across Glasgow and Essex earlier this year. Pret A Manger currently operates 40 unites at on-the-go locations across the country, including convenience stores and petrol stations. The company plans to have more than 50 machines by the end of the 2022.  

Pret A Manger’s entry into the UK’s premium self-serve coffee market was first announced in October 2021 via a partnership announcement with fellow JAB Holdings brand JDE Peet’s. 

The coffee chain, which currently operates more than 420 stores in the UK, sought to diversify its sales channels during the pandemic to reduce its previous reliance on city centre trade and target neighbourhood stores. 

In July 2022, the company reported that 66% of its UK outlet portfolio was now situated outside of London's financial district and that digital transactions accounted for 37% of transactions during 2021.   

Additionally, the coffee chain’s Coffee Subscription service, first launched in the UK in September 2020, has seen subscriber sales increase from more than over 667,000 per week in 2021 to over one million purchases a week in the UK in 2022.   

With the Pret Express expansion, Pret A Manger is seeking to emulate the success of Costa Coffee’s Costa Express self-serve coffee machines. Costa Coffee is the largest operator in the UK premium self-serve segment, operating over 12,000 units and holding a 71% market share, as of the end of 2021.    

In June 2022 Costa Coffee began introducing 1,100 new Costa Express self-serve machines, capable of serving both hot and iced beverages, across the UK. In September 2022 the company began a UK trial of a self-serve machine that uses only oatmilk.