Jobs & Careers with Piers Linney - 170

HUNGRY FOR
P

ret A Manger is the UK's leading
retailer of fresh, high quality
sandwiches, salads and drinks.
Founded in 1986, it has 290 shops in
the UK, 370 worldwide including US,
France, Hong Kong and China, and
employs 7,300 people in the UK.
Using natural ingredients and avoiding
preservatives and obscure chemicals is
sacred to Pret. Its sandwiches are freshly
made throughout the day in each and every
Pret kitchen. It's what makes Pret special.

Culture and values
'Career progression is a real possibility
at Pret,' says Head of Pret Academy, Ian
Watson, 44, who ﬁrst joined Pret as a shop
manager 16 years ago. 'Indeed, 72% of
our shop managers initially joined Pret as
a team member. We have what we call our
Pret Behaviours, which are: passion,
clear talking, and team working.
'When we recruit, we look
for people who possess
'THE
those core qualities. In
EXCITING
addition, when hiring,
MYSTERY SHOPPER
it doesn't matter if
PROGRAMME DRIVES
you're being recruited
as a team member or a
GOOD BEHAVIOUR
director, everybody has
AND TOP
to do a Pret experience
SERVICE'
day, where you spend a
few hours in a nominated

shop. The shop team
then ends up voting
if they want you to work
there or not. This hands
all the responsibility to
the team itself, not just the
manager, to choose the right
people to come and work for us.'

enefits

Pret's salads
and sandwiches
are freshly made

People build
long careers
at Pret

'We work hard and we play hard,' explains
Ian. 'It's early mornings (5am is common),
busy kitchens and busy front of house
operations - but we have a lot of fun, too.
Some highlights include the two enormous
parties we have each year, where every
team member across the UK is invited!
'There are so many incentives at Pret; we
like to "catch people doing things right,"'
continues Ian. 'We empower our managers
and teams to do the correct things for each
other, and for our customers.
'We have a really exciting mystery
shopper programme, too - 88% of our shops
achieve their mystery shopper bonus
every week, so it's real. It drives good

There are 290
Pret shops in
the UK

behaviour, and I think that's where you get
the difference in service between Pret
and some of its competitors.
'We have the in-house Pret academy
which supports that training and delivers
the learning. It really is about having the
right people in the right place.'
David Carter, 41, Head of People, says:
'There are a unique range of rewards and
beneﬁts at Pret such as "Shooting Stars"
which empower our people to reward each
other for providing support during their
training. Things like this are very important
to us. It's all about a career at Pret and
people build long careers with us.'

Key focus
'We have a very simple business model
that we call the Pret Recipe (made up
of cucumber slices!),' explains David.
'We always start with the biggest, most
important cog of the recipe: "The Right
Pret People". We believe that if we have a
strong "family tree" in each of our shops,
that amazing service, proﬁtability and sales
growth will naturally follow.'
Jobs & Careers with Piers Linney

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