Following a restructuring of the chain, 2800 cuts have been made.
The jobs cuts are majoritively made up of shop staff; however 90 roles have been cut in the company’s support centre teams. The decision was due to a culmination of shorter opening hours, lower transaction levels and the losses faced by the businesses in 2020 and although there have been clear signs of recovery in the market, trade across the UK is still down around 60%.
“I’m gutter that we’ve had to lose so many colleagues.” Commented Chief Executive Officer Pano Christou, he carried on: “Although we’re now starting to see a steady but slow recovery, the pandemic has taken away almost a decade of growth at Pret.”
“We’ve managed to protect many jobs by making changes to the way we run our shops and the hours we ask team members to work. I’m hopeful we’ll be able to review all these changes now that trade is improving again, and I’m encouraged by the improvements we’re seeing every week.”
