Pret a Manger customers left fuming over end of ‘free drinks’

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Pret a Manger is axing its subscription offering members “free drinks”, almost four years after the deal launched in the UK to attract customers back after the Covid pandemic. In a move that has upset some customers, the coffee chain said it was “time to rethink” the Club Pret offer, and that instead of providing five drinks a day and a 20% discount on food for a cost of £30 a month, it would charge £10 for a subscription for half-price drinks. Its offering of five free hot or iced barista-made drinks has been running for four years. Last year it increased the price and added a discount for food, which led to two sets of price tags on its shelves. Pret said it would eliminate this dual pricing across food products, something the company’s UK managing director, Clare Clough, said the chain “never really got comfortable with”. The new subscription will be introduced in September. For existing and new subscribers, the fee will start at £5 a month until 31 March 2025 and then rise to £10. “We know this is a change. But with Club Pret subscription, our coffees, teas, coolers, and iced drinks will continue to be the best offer on the high street, and at a much more accessible price than the £360 a year people have to pay for the current scheme,” Clough said. She added that “given the majority of our customers are not Club Pret subscribers, our priority now is to focus on better value for everyone”. There was a hostile reaction to the change from some quarters, with people airing their frustration on social media. One X user directed their response to Pret, saying: “You are making a huge mistake. There is time to rectify it. Otherwise, I am cancelling my subscription.” Another said: “I’m genuinely shocked that you think that it’s acceptable to try to auto-enrol people off of the current subscription plan to your … 50% off in September. This should be an opt-in system due to the level of change to the scheme.” Last year, Pret a Manger returned to profit for the first time since 2018, with the launch of its subscription service helping the coffee and bakery chain bounce back after the Covid crisis. The group, which suffered during the pandemic lockdowns when office workers stayed at home, said sales jumped 20% to £430m in the six months to the end of June 2023. Pret’s subscription service generated 57.9m redemptions globally in 2022, up two-thirds from a year before.