Pret will have 14 Veggie branches by this summer – 13 of which will be in London Just one Veggie Pret can be found outside the M25

Pret A Manger’s push to vegetarianism continues to be London-centric.

Pret announced this week that it will have 14 Veggie Pret sites by the summer, though nearly all of them will be in the capital, with just one elsewhere. Deansgate in Manchester will remain the only Veggie Pret outside the M25 for now.

There are currently seven Veggie Pret branches open. Six are in central London, mainly around the City and in commuter hotspots in Soho and Canary Wharf. New dishes have also been revealed, such is the weight behind plant-based dining in 2020.

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Pret said to i: “We’re pleased to confirm that we are aiming to have 14 Veggie Pret shops open by summer 2020. This follows Veggie Pret’s biggest ever menu launch last month which includes 19 new recipes, all of which are exclusively available to Veggie Pret.”

London focus

The company, which bought rival high street food retailer EAT for almost £60m in 2017, said upon acquisition it would turn nearly all of the 84 outposts into Veggie Prets, though has since partially backtracked and is looking to offload around 16 of them – in London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow.

It comes as no surprise that Pret would concentrate its plant-based range in London. There’s a sense that meat aversion has a metropolitan edge, and Pret is big city brand anyway. EAT was even more so.

And yet you would have thought Pret would be looking to target smaller cities by now. Vegetarianism is not an entirely London ideal after all.

National expansion?

It might be more down to age than geography. In an industry bulletin on Thursday, chief executive Pano Christou said the average age of a Pret customer was 39, but when it came to Veggie Pret, the figure fell to between 20 and 29.

But then there are young people all over the country. Even if they live in cities, London isn’t the only one.

Pret wouldn’t reveal whether it planned to spread its vegetarian wings any further. In the latter half of the year, more openings are expected, but whether any are in the likes of Birmingham, Bristol, or Newcastle isn’t known.

For now, commuters outside London will have to make do with the original Pret brand, where there has at least been an improved veggie and vegan offering on shelves in the last 12 months.