This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Whatever you get to your BBC podcasts. Hello, welcome to Big Boss interview. I'm Fliss Hannah and I am joined by Sean Farrington. You've been speaking to a business that is just synonymous now with the British High Street, but it's also one that's been growing overseas, including in the Middle East. So this is a really, really timely interview. Hi, Fliss. Yes, this is Prattamonje, who absolutely do have a presence in the Middle East and of course they will be sealing some of those pressures that have been brought about for many businesses because of those higher oil and gas prices. So we'll hear from Pano about what the prospects may well be for supply, for ingredients for prices further down the line as well. It's a competitive market that grabbing a quick coffee, grabbing your lunch, grabbing an evening meal as we hear as well on our high streets. And Pratt over the years, I've had some interesting approaches there to 30 quid subscription, few coffees a day that you could get out of that. Then they changed their mind a bit and went to a smaller level of subscription where you have to pay a bit for each coffee. It's a changing world. We love our coffees in Britain. And so we'll hear about what it is about customer dynamics, what we want from our visits on the high street that has led them to changing those and the products that they have in store as well, whether it's massive salads or small baguettes. So there's all of that to discuss. Plus Pano is one of those rare people who's had a CV go viral. His LinkedIn profile does show his background how he started on the shop floor and with a promotion every few years managed to get all the way to being chief executive. So we'll hear a bit more about that story, what it is that works in the world of hospitality and retail and what was worked for him over the years as well. So here is Pano Christu, formerly assistant manager of Prattamongi and now Chief Executive. Pano Christu, Chief Executive of Prattamongi, thank you very much for your time this morning. No, thank you. Really great to be here Sean. So yeah, in the depths of tube strikes around London, it's good to be able to get in and have the conversation today. Regular listeners to Big Boss interview will know that part of the point of this is to be a bit more conversational and delve a little bit deeper into what it's like running some of our biggest higher profile businesses. When there's something like a tube strike, how much impact is that have on your business? It does definitely have a negative impact on our business and I think we've had a fair few of them over the years so we are now used to working how to plan them. One thing I would say that I think commuters are making more and more effort to come in on these tube strikes. So where it may have been a much bigger impact years ago, it is less so but it still is a negative impact. So my absolute preference would be no tube strikes. What is that telling you about those commuters if they're making more of an effort on a tube strike day for those who don't live in London, it's clearly a key way of getting millions of people around the capital quickly. I'm not quite sure on why people are making more of a concerted effort. One thing I have seen in the more recent years, the rise of the e-bike and the line bike, so you can definitely see those being heavily utilized by trying to get into work. So I think from our perspective it is, you know, you definitely see that being a means of transport that may have not been the case when there were strikes five to ten years ago. And does how people get into work make a difference to their relationship with pret? I don't think so. I think there are many different means of how people get in train, tube, bus, walk, bikes, etc. I do think, and I think this is a continued trend and has been for a number of years, you know, you are to see more and more people using bikes, including myself, actually, that is generally my means of transport. It is on a bike into the office most of the time. So because I do wouldn't do if people are starting to change their approach, when you are considering the locations that you're maybe thinking about opening more preta-monjais or seeing which ones do well, do you have to think about how those people who want to be shopping in your store are getting to work? No, I think pret generally operates in city centres and transport locations across the world. So that's really where the sweet spot of where the brand operates. And ahead of deciding on a new location, there will be many data points that we look at, you know, population, density, office workers, etc, etc, etc. And I think if there are good public transport amenities to utilise that generally works well as well. Where are we compared to pre-COVID, those COVID years where the lockdowns were happening, people were then used to working from home, took a while to come out of that. That is something that has impacted pret quite a lot over the years. That idea of going to an office to work and not working from home. Where do we sit now? Yeah, well, I think that you're absolutely right. I think working-packed patterns have changed off the back end of COVID. What we have seen is slowly more and more fo-car coming in more days of the week. I think we saw some data that said, I think on average, people are coming into the office about 3.8 times, 3.8 days per week last year, which was a slight uptick from the year before. We do think that might be a slow trend that continues. Will we see people in five days a week? I don't think so. I think we have evolved our own flexible working policies within our offices. And I'm a big believer that, you know, the external environment will continue to change and evolve. I think CEOs have to continue to be nimble and evolve their businesses to serve the needs of the customers, whether they're working in our office or working from home. Does that mean you've had to start thinking, you know, what we weren't open some of our stores on a Friday more than we would have done before? No, absolutely not. It's definitely quieter on a Friday, but all of our stores operate minimum five days a week. So either Monday to Friday or over the weekends, depending on where you are. But I think that, you know, my sense is that during COVID, a lot of people that work from home, they had existing relationships with folk in the work and environment. And there's more and more new people come in to roles and jobs. You know, they people want that flexibility, but also understand the importance of human connectivity as well. What has been the biggest shake up? You became chief executive. We'll get into your career at some point in this chat, no doubt because it's a fascinating CV that's gone viral at times because of it. But from your perspective, running press, what you'd seen in the years before, but then COVID comes along. What now when you reflect on what your stores look like, what they're selling, how customers are behaving has really been the biggest jolt compared to the the pretemanger you would have once known. Well, I would describe it as prep was a single channel analog business before COVID. No connectivity with our customers digitally. The only way you could really buy, put his walking into a store. And subsequently off the changes, I would call us now an omnichannel business that has a digital relationship with our customers. So using delivery, using subscriptions, using loyalty programs, we have a range of products we now selling supermarkets, as well as giving people a great experience when they walk into a pret store. So it's definitely meant that we have to broaden our horizon and look at different sales channels. But I think that's not any different to many other businesses that operate in a similar segment to pret. And the challenges I often find is, you know, utilising different sales channels, but really trying to keep the business as simple as possible. Because I'm a big believer that the simpler we can keep the business, the easier it is for our staff to great experiences to our customers. Do you think with, for example, the attempts that you've made with coffee subscriptions one way or another, that at times that has over complicated things.
because you launched a subscription that was 30 pounds a month and you could get five coffees a day, I think, barista-made coffees or whatever the small print was that I saw on that, coffees a day for that. But then after a time you scrapped that. Yeah, so we initially launched a subscription in September 2020 when our stores were empty and due to COVID. And we really saw a resurgence of customers coming in utilizing the subscription. I think the first day of launching the subscription, we had about 30,000 people that signed up. What we did see as general commuters and workers and customers started to come back in, the combination of the current guys of the subscription and how the business has returned as many did come through COVID, we felt we really needed to evolve the subscription. So in July 2024, we made a change. So instead of, we started at 20 pounds a month, then it moved to 30 pounds a month and we changed it from 30 pounds a month and three drinks to five pounds a month and get your drinks for half price, which we still have today. So a lower barrier to entry, IE five pounds instead of 30 pounds, but a slightly different variation to the subscription and that's see we've seen the new variation of the subscription grow close to 25% in the last 12 months alone. So what is it? The world of subscriptions, we're fascinated with them. It feels like in the UK, whenever we talk about them on our shows, we got lots of people getting in touch about their approach to them one way or another. What is it about that different approach in those two subscriptions do you think that reflects how we buy things? Well, I think that, you know, customers really enjoy getting great value, whether it's for a loyalty program or the subscription programs and we see that within our customers and the behaviors and how they utilize these subscriptions. Also as well, it gives us an opportunity to connect with our customers digitally and kind of personalize the way that we can communicate with them and give them offers and promotions. So that's really been how that's evolved. It in all honesty from ideation to launch during COVID that happened in six weeks. So we didn't really spend much time thinking about how would this look strategically over the future years. It was more about, you know, we just really want to try and drum up custom to come back into our stores and it really did take that box. But I think with all loyalty programs or subscription businesses, you know, companies will continue to evolve those. But I think the focus always has to be, you know, can you give your customers great value? And I think that for five pounds a month to get all of your drinks 50% off, you won't find a cheaper coffee or tea on the market than that. There is the pitch. I tell you what, as we broadcast this on our shows, I almost guarantee you there'll be people getting in touch with their rival thoughts. But we completely can see that, you know, that he's exactly what you're aiming for there is. That's the market. It's a busy one, the coffee market in the UK. I was interested in you said you sort of didn't almost overthink it getting that out of there. Is that your style particularly? Do you think retail needs to do more of that? Like give something a go and see how people react and be nimble or can you confuse customers and scare them off? I think that the dynamics of the game changed during COVID. And I think we really had to look at things as an entrepreneur would. And I think that taking risks, which I, you know, I'd probably consider myself, you know, I do like to take a risk and learn from those things and try to encourage the same within our teams. And that's even I think today the world, the industry, these dynamics are changing faster and faster. So you have to ensure that you are nimble. I think you have to create an environment within a business that allows people to make mistakes so they can learn from those mistakes. And I think, you know, often in business, especially as businesses grow, you can become quite risk of us. And then I think that's where you're stifled innovation and just the adaptation that you may need to take to the the changing dynamics of business. Can you be innovative when you're lower down the rungs of an organization? And I sort of use that analogy particularly because if people caught your LinkedIn profile, the bit that sort of talks about the background of somebody and and they're effectively their CV online, they might have seen that yours went viral and it looks almost exactly like the rungs of a lather wood without any rungs being missed out. So I've just got it up in front of me just to give people a bit of an idea. It starts off January 1995, floor manager, well, stood in the system manager, store manager, brief time outside a way from preta and McDonald's blockbuster, then to preta's assistant manager, assistant general manager, yeah, and we go on and on up. It feels like almost every single individual level head of operations, UK managing director to chief operating officer and chief executive officer. Did you feel along that route? Were you being innovative to make that what must feel like quite a rare journey? Yeah, it's been a wonderful journey and I think I've seen the business from founders to to the ownership structure it has today and I think that gives me a unique insight into the business. I understand and I know how it is to work in our stores. Actually, everyone in our offices twice a year will work a full day in our stores, get in five o'clock in the morning, making sandwiches, serving customers, including myself. And I think I always find that quite a sobering event to do and so much I learn when I spend time on the shop floor. And to answer your question around how do you really socialise and capture ideas from the organization? I think we have across the world within our network 17,000 employees. So there are many individuals that work with us that have great thoughts, great ideas and really see the good, the bad, and the ugly, and the cold face when they're in our stores. So we do actually- be innovative in them because to people who've been in more than one, they will feel very, very similar and will seem like you do, you would know the products that are going to be on those shelves and even where they are. What innovation could you have? So, brands are built on consistency. So I think we do try to ensure that there is a consistent approach to process stores. But what we do do is we have every single store has a big poster with a QR code on. And if you have any ideas, any thoughts of things that we can do differently, please scan the QR code. And if we take that idea to a test, we will give somebody an reward in monetary terms. If we launch the idea, they will get an even bigger financial reward as well. So we do work on mechanisms and how we get ideas. And in all honesty, I spend a lot of time out and about in our shops. And the biggest question I ask people is, how can we do to- what can we do to help you? So on a store- The biggest answer you've got back in recent times? There are things that people have spoken about around automation. If there are manual processes in our kitchens and front of house, is there more that you can automate? What roles does AI play in pret? So again, those are things that I think us and many companies are still trying to figure out. There are also the ideas around, why don't you try and make a sandwich with a specific flavor profile. And we've actually run competitions with our baristas and with our kitchen staff around develop a sandwich and run a competition and the winner will get their products launched with impret. We've done that on a number of occasions across the years. Right. As there have been something that surprised you along the way with that, something where, you know, for all the money you'd be spending on those that are, you know, product development types in the world of food. That actually has been an idea from the shop floor that's made it. So I was in our shops in Paris a couple of months ago. And they ran a competition with their baristas and they looked at, they launched, which was an idea for one of the baristas, a rose flavoured latte. I looked at it and I thought, well, I'm not quite sure about that. So tried it and it was fantastic and it was a great and has continued to be one of the top selling drinks within our French market. So there are many other examples, but that is one. And I actually went and visited the barista who's very excited to see obviously his creation up there connecting with customers. Do French customers realise Préter Mollet J'es a British
business. They pay too. They do. Yeah, it's a funny one because I often thoughts myself, but a British brand with a French name selling good quality food to the French. How would that work? It's been a fantastic success. It really has. We've been there for 13 years now. I think the French consumers really understand great quality food. And we've grown the business to a number of locations in Paris, Leon, Nice to lose, I'll say. So it is our third largest business now, but it took behind the UK and our US business. Just getting back to your background and how you got to where you were. What's there a point on that ladder of rungs where you thought, was it maybe from the beginning? You thought, I really want to get to the very top of this business when you were assistant manager in October 2000. The short answer is no. I only really considered the CEO role a couple of years before I saw the possibility of it coming my way. You know, I always wanted to do well, do a good job. And as you can see, I continued to get promoted throughout that time doing 10 different roles within that time. I'm a big believer in when people often ask me around career progression and what words of advice or wisdom I can give them on their journey. I often say, you know, spend time focusing on the job you're doing in hand and that will generally sell you into the next position. I've far too often seen folk that are so passionate about the next stage, it takes the emphasis off them doing their day job. So, so no, it's I've, you know, as I've gone through the ranks, you know, threats given me the opportunity to learn and do things differently. And, you know, I think that, you know, in some ways I pinch myself every day seeing, you know, I've got the range of such a wonderful brand and the opportunity now to give back to give back to those people that that work with us and, you know, you talk to my career journey. But there are many others like myself that have worked in prep for a number of years and have grown throughout the business. What was the biggest leap between all of those roles? I would say, become in CEO and I say that because I'd only been CEO for three months when COVID kicked in. So quite quite a baptism of fire and whereas, you know, my predecessors was in post for 18 years. So there was a view, you know, continuation of the business, continued moving forward. The business continued to grow. But then overnight you go from a great business to no business. But, you know, I think that from, you know, 2020 onwards, as people started to slowly move out of COVID, the business has continued to grow. I think in 2023, we surpassed kind of ourselves of 2019 and the business just continued to grow from then in. Were there any nerves around that time, particularly as COVID began just months after you started as chief executive? Were there any nerves? Yes, I guess there were nerves. And, you know, I think I'm always when you imposed on you in a role and looking to earn your stripes and cut your teeth so to speak, that is a process I think many go through and it was exactly the same for myself. But now this October will be seven years as CEO and time has flown. But I think there's lots of loads we've taken along that time. When you reflect now on younger workers who are looking to build their careers, looking to think about what careers might be on their way, do you feel like the same opportunities are there now that were around in the mid-90s, the early 2000s, when you were sort of on those lower rungs of the the organisation? Well, the hospitality industry is one of the largest employees in the country. And, you know, clearly it's been a challenge in time for hospitality because of a multitude of things that have happened out of the control of the sector. But it still remains to be a great career for individuals. You know, it is tough, it's not easy, you know, working in kitchens, serving customers, etc. But I think that for any young person, and again, we have many examples of that we have a high percentage of youngs, younger or teenagers or early 20s within the pre-organisation. And I think it's given them the right tools, education, nurturing, and actually the stories within the organisation that showcases that there are folk that were like you a number of years ago that have grown to give them that that inspiration. And we spend a lot of time connecting younger employers with folk that have been within the organisation for a long time, that can really talk to the challenges they had earlier on in their career. And what are the real watchouts for for those individuals as they grow? Are you in an environment where you feel encouraged to develop these younger people where you feel it's worth your while, business-wise, to actually do this? Absolutely, absolutely. I think that I often say for any business growth gives people opportunities. And we are a business that is in growth mode, it is growing, and the more we grow the more opportunities we are able to give individuals. This September for the first time ever, Pratt will be launching a graduate program. So when many companies are stopping graduate programs, reducing them out of graduate, so they're bringing it on, we are going to be bringing in our first cohort of graduates that will be on a two-year-grade program in September. And we now see that as another way of bringing young talent into the organisation. How many people are you thinking of bringing it? So we're going to bring in seven to start with. And what's the thinking behind that? So you know, young talented individuals come in through, you know, finishing university, looking for the next professional jobs, and we see it as an opportunity to give back to society and bring people into the environment. I think that what we are seeing, that there are many things that the younger generation are looking at that is very different to other generations. And I think bringing that young, hungry, dynamic, different way of thought into the organisation, we think that's a great thing. Do you have aspirations for that to be very, very big in the years to come? Absolutely. You know, this is year one of a scheme that will happen every single year, and our aspiration is to continue to grow the amounts of graduates that we bring into Pratt. And do you feel there's, is there a demand there as well from younger people who are, do you have you detected there are more people turning away from that university process that many would have been through for decades? So, you know, we had thousands of people apply for the graduate scheme, and these were mainly folk that were coming through the university route, but equally we have brought in many on apprenticeships that have come out to school, and you know, we funded apprenticeships, bringing folk in 16, 17 years old, developing them to kind of, you know, in many instance, we have many instances that somebody would come in at 16 years old, but the age of 20 years old, you're running a pret store as a general manager, and these are businesses that will be making two million pounds plus a year. You'll be operating a team of 20 to 30 individuals. We will then spend the time to learn, nurture, educate these individuals, and I think that, you know, I've seen first hand the impact that has had on people, and I think that upfront investment at younger ages, I think what we also see is loyalty. And the other thing that we have, our charitable arm, the Pratt Foundation Trust, which initially was us giving food at the end of the day to local grassroots charities. Over the last 15 years we've been bringing in ex-offenders, homeless, and asylum seekers into the working environment. So we brought on boards, almost 700, we brought on board about 120 last year alone. And again, you know, a lot of time, NFA investing in these people, especially some people that their life may have gone off tangent, and we help and work with them. But again, what we've seen with this cohort, even more loyalty, because they see that as a business you're investing in them. And I think that I know that
it's hard to, as a CEO or as a business leader to think about what to invest in, but I am a big believer, you know, the number one thing for us is the focus on great talent. I think if you have great talent around an organization or a brand, you know, that will be for me the difference between doing something great and doing something average. So it's interesting you mentioned in there, you know, those issues of, you know, the levels of homelessness, number of asylum seekers in the UK, something that's things that are often talked about in a political sense. Could businesses be doing more there across the board for those situations? Yes. So we've been working for the last three years with his Royal Highness Prince William's Home Recharity. So this charity was set up by the Prince to work towards alleviating homelessness across the UK. They reached out to us looking for what they would call incubators and utilizing our experiences bringing homeless people into the work environment. So pret, Ikea and Bosch were chosen by them and we have been working with them. Really, we've an open source approach to showing what we do to other organisations so they can try and take the learns to integrate that into their businesses. And for me, it's just another form of exploring how to bring talent in. So I absolutely think there is much more businesses can do to help with the situation we have on homelessness and as you know, very well, sure on it is a problem and they's becoming bigger and bigger. So there is definitely more we need to do to help with that. Just going back to some of the insights that we can get from you about what we see on the shelves in your pret stores, what's the thinking behind the scenes? A very hot topic at the moment is what is going to be the consequences on food prices from the current situation in the war in Iran? Are you starting to see that play out in price pressures for you now? So we have held our price in pretty tightly since the last two and a half years or so. So pret has priced way below inflation. And what we are seeing with the recent instance in the Middle East, yes, what we are seeing is volatility when it comes to fuel, we have trucks bringing fresh ingredients into our stores every single day. So we're seeing a negative impact due to that. Looking at the volatility of energy costs, we got quite heavily during the Ukrainian war with an increase in energy cost back then. Clearly, I have come down a lot and we have locked our energy cost to the end of 2027. And then really, I think is waiting and see what happens through the supplies base in our suppliers. So yes, we are watching closely. We are seeing some inflation coming through the system. I think as it currently stands, we don't have any plans to put prices up off the back end of that. We are looking at how we can do everything within our control to mitigate on costs to protect our customers. I think consumer confidence is low. People don't have as much money. People are looking more for value. And I think there is a bigger role for us that we want to play with giving customers great value. And with great value is not necessarily the cheap plus product. Great value is great value for the quality ingredients for the service you get and for the environment that you come into. When you see, as I'm sure you're following, closely, the day-to-day news and the fact that oil prices still remain very high when we're talking at the moment, we're talking about still around $100 a barrel. Do you have a sense, I know you've said, you're not necessarily seeing the necessity to push prices up at the moment. But do you have a feeling if this goes on for a certain length of time, then it will inevitably start to feed through into the food prices customers are paying? Clearly it's quite possible. And I think everybody is waiting with beta brefs to see what happens. Will there be a deal? Will this calm down? Businesses will not be able to withstand hyperinflation forever. So I think we're just watching it very closely, day-to-day, to really try and understand the impact that you may flow into businesses. What about issues with supply? Given the array of ingredients a store like yours will have, there been some issues or even visiting some issues that certain ingredients are going to have problems? Into the UK, no. So we've had no problem whatsoever. We do source most of our ingredients locally in the UK and the stuff we don't generally come from southern Europe. What we have found though, so we have a great business in the Middle East and the Middle East has been our fastest growing market over the last two to three years. So things that we would be exporting into the Middle East sometimes that will be taking a little bit more time. So that's something our teams on the ground there are looking at closely. But I'd say here in the UK at the moment, no issues. But again, where it is closer to the environment of the Middle East, we have seen some challenges. Even that you have business in the Middle East, as we're on the 22nd April at the time of talking, and I say that day because people might listen to this interview at various different times. It's sort of important for the context. I just wonder how things are for your staff in the Middle East at the moment compared to how they've been as the war in Iran has escalated. So clearly, the safety of our staff is of the utmost importance. And we've been having continued dialogue to ensure that the teams on the ground are taking the right steps. And the good thing is there's very good clear government advice that is being shared. We've local businesses on the ground and the teams will just work towards that guidance. Clearly, it is a region that has had unrest for multiple decades. So some of those folks that live closer, sorry, that will be from that part of the world, will have elements of being used to that. But I think what we are seeing now in some instances is quite unprecedented. So that there's definitely kind of anxiety of the volatility. But equally, we are just staying very close to ensuring that we adhere into government guidance and just holding to wait to see that with Bati Breff and fingers crossed that this comes to an end at some point soon. Has it given some precedent despite what the wider region has experienced for many, many years, as you say? Does it make you think you might need to slow down your growth ambitions or presence in the Middle East? No, not at all. I think our franchise partners that we work with in the Middle East are very focused on prep for the long term. And they see this is a, yes, this is a challenge moment in time. But by no means to this point of we had any indication of slowing down or differences of ambition. I think that within that part of the world, especially the GCC on the visit I've made out there over the last five years, there is so much investment going on there. There is a real, I think, positive sentiment with these countries that are growing that are evolving, whether it's the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the changes in the investments. This is going to continue in my mind for many decades of this investment. So I think you will see the region change evolve for the better long term. And I think this is just a moment in time for them to navigate through. The GCC is the, many of those golf countries as well, are having the Middle East. When you talk about the price and the offer that you have in print, again, we've talked about the coffee subscriptions. Another aspect that people will have seen change would have been the size of some of this stuff and the price that goes with it, very, very big salads that seem very, very expensive to the concept of popping into a store on your high street for a bit of lunch. Have you found people have been paying 12 pounds for a salad? Yeah, the new salads, which we call the super plate range, has been a roar in success. We are selling 40% more units than we expected. And again, I think customers see the portion size, see the quality of ingredients and understand this is great value. Do you find it remarkable, given your background, you've seen it all from the shop floor, that people are now willing to part with, well over 10 pounds for something that they are taking out, you know, possibly eating in a high street cafe. Yeah, I think what you get with Pratt is quite a broad range. So they may not come in and purchase that salad every single day, but that may be a true thing.
choice on a specific day and they may migrate to something else on a different day. But I think, again, I go back to, for me, this is beyond the price point and going back to value for money for the portion and the quality of the ingredients you get. So I guess the short. You still need the cash though, don't you? For that size, we'll often be talking about value for money. People will be for their lunch. People will be thinking of smaller prices. It's very interesting you say there's been demand for this. What are people? What are people? Where are they moving from? I guess it's the question. So what were these customers doing before who are willing to spend? I think they've moved from more traditional bread-based products because I think there is a migration towards people trying to consume less bread. I also think as well what we've seen from these salads is customers buying them more in the evening because they see this as well as a lunch staple, a very meaningful evening staple. So we are seeing a very high amount of those being sold in the evening much more so than the gets and sandwiches. What is that move away from bread all about? That'd be another thing decades ago you'd have thought, no, chance. Surely, our egg crest sandwich will always be the thing that will be at the heart of it. It's changing there. What's salads is definitely a segment that is grown and that's not just within print. I think that's across industry. People are more mindful about the amount of bread they consume but also I think that people are now today much more astute around the different types and variations of bread. So I think there's a high emphasis on quality, whether it's the sourdough players as an example. But equally even though yes people are eating bread less often, it is still a huge category across the UK. I think it just pushes businesses to look at this differently and innovate. So we continue to look at different types of bread carriers to keep it interesting for our customers. I think one thing when we speak to our customers because you have a customer that comes in much more frequently than some of the more traditional, what we would call QSR brands, the burger brands etc which are more of an experience. But they do like innovation change, newness and we used to have four different innovation windows a year and we've recently moved to six different innovation windows a year to give customers more newness more often. Half-Begets as well, that's another one where there's been a size change and people seemingly willing to buy a much smaller product. Is that a bit of shrink flation in another name where people are still walking out maybe what they did a few years ago but getting way, way less for it? So we've had half-samages and half-Begets for over 20 years. So this is not a new thing for Pratt. So I know from when we've been advertising especially the Biget offer more so recently, what we are seeing that customers like to mix and match more, so generally people are not buying just half a BGET. I see almost all instances they would buy two different flavors of the half-Beget or a soup as well as a half-Beget. So again I think this is just us giving consumers optionality because it's not like now you can buy half a tuna baguette, you can't buy a full tuna baguette any longer. Yes you can buy a full tuna baguette but you also have the option to buy half a tuna baguette as well. So it's us giving customers more optionality. Yes it could help them from a value perspective but also I think what we have seen this year in particular has been a really really great uptick to the half-Beget promotion that we pushed down. I'll wait, Lost Drugs having an impact. I've seen businesses within the Food Industry talk to that. We've not seen it thus far and people often ask me when we kind of advertise the half-Begets is that because of the GLP1 drugs and absolutely it wasn't but I think that does serve a purpose for folk. We are though however looking at protein dense products and that's a trend that seems to be moving around the GLP dynamic but just really tentatively exploring it. We are watching how people are you know how the uptake is or on-nose but I think from our perspective when we look at ourselves how the business is doing we don't see anything that would indicate to us that it is a problem for us yet and today. Do you think the way some in the Food Industry have reacted to it? Can you move a bit too quickly? Do you find that that weight loss drug story is changing and actually customers are now have had long enough to see longer term impacts of that and how long it changes their habits for? I don't think we have had enough time to see really what is the impact of the GLP1 take up. I think that is still to play out over the next few years or so so we will see. Just a couple of questions just in running pret as you do big business decisions you might now have to be making with yourselves your shareholders. One of the big things big stories and the coffee scene of later being those cost stores potentially being up for grabs is that something that interests you to try and be able to hugely expand your presence in very different areas across the UK? So we see a huge opportunity to continue to grow the business across the UK. So we have about 550 locations. We see the opportunity to take the business to 1,500 locations over the future. I think cost is 2,500 plus, Greg says 2,500 plus. McDonald's is 1,500 locations plus. So these are businesses that are far larger than us. So yeah, where the end state is on the how part do we grow is a big question. Did you ever have a chat with Coca-Cola or investors about having a look at that deal? No, we didn't. I think we got our hands full with pret and grand apprent brand and that is the absolute focus. So yeah, I think we, you know, for all the challenges within the UK, again we see customers resonating with the brand and we see a big opportunity to grow. And regarding, you know, pret and mongi, the whole company. Is that going to be listed on a stock market any time soon? Is that another way that you could be looking to grow and attract investment and grow the business? No, no plans to go public. Obviously people will be the first to know if that was the case. I think we're quite unique because we're not really run by traditional private XZ, run by a family. So they are long term investors. They've owned the brand for eight years. They have many examples of businesses they've owned for 30 or 40 years. And I think what that gives us with a family ownership structure, the opportunity to look at things a little bit more long term. They are huge fans of the prep business and love to be involved in what we're doing. And just finally, given, you know, we've ended up talking about listing on stock market some when many decades ago you were on a shop floor and we've talked about your journey. Was there anything do you think as you look back on the young panel that would have maybe given you a bit of a hint that you would one day be the chief executive of one of our biggest food retailers? About ten, probably ten years before it happened, my wife actually said to me, "Panna, I think you're going to be the CEO of prep." And I thought at the time, "You're crazy, but that's not going to be the case." I must say she does chuckle now when she sees me here as the chief executive. I think when I reflect back at myself and my younger days within prep, you know, I've always had a kind of a real drive to want to do more every day. You know, whatever was great today, how can we make it better tomorrow? And having that continued drive, I think has really added value not just to my career, but to the prep brand. I think we try to install that mentality with my executive team. I think everybody looks at the business as if we are owners of the business and I think that ownership mentality will continue to service well. Panna Christu, assistant manager to chief executive now of Prattamorjay. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Remember, we've got loads of these Big Boss interviews available right now on BBC Sounds with bosses from every sector. And if you subscribe, then you'll never miss an episode. If you want to get in touch with us, you absolutely can. Just email
[email protected]. Have a very good week.
40 years ago the People Power Revolution restored democracy to the Philippines. I'm Jay Barouzi and for Heart and Soul, I'm speaking to some of those involved about how their Catholic faith underpinned the peaceful protests and helped overthrow a dictator. Listen now by searching for the documentary, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
PodcastTranscript AI