PRET A Manger has reported strong half-year results as it prepares to open its first outlet in Northern Ireland.
The sandwich specialist said strong demand for its subscription service helped drive half-year revenues up by more than a fifth despite a recent move to hike the price of the deal.
The food-to-go chain reported revenues of £429.9 million for the first six months of 2023, up 20.2 per cent on a year ago.
It comes just over a year after Pret announced its move into the Irish market, with plans to open 20 outlets on both sides of the border.
Pret had already opened two stores in Dublin, but CBRE has confirmed the food chain has agreed terms for a unit in Belfast city centre, which will be its first outlet in Northern Ireland.
The new Belfast outlet will reportedly open in Donegall Square West, in the premises previously vacated by Patisserie Valerie.
Meanwhile, Pret said it achieved record weekly revenues in May and June this year, as its Club Pret subscription service proved popular with customers after expanding to include food as well as coffee.
Digital transactions also jumped 42 per cent in the half year, up from 40 per cent in December, the group said.
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Pret increased the cost of the subscription service by 20 per cent from June to £30 a month in the second price rise since the service launched in 2020.
It also widened the scheme, rebranded in April as Club Pret, to include a 10 per cent discount on food and cold drinks, having initially launched in 2020 as a coffee-only subscription.
In figures for 2022 made available for the first time, Pret also revealed it posted an annual operating profit of £50.6m - returning to profitability for the first time since 2018.
The group cheered global expansion for helping improve its results, with the firm now operating more than 600 shops internationally across 15 countries and overseas sales now accounting for 18.9 per cent of revenues.
It is aiming to expand this to more than 700 outlets globally by the end of this year.
The group said it was running ahead of growth targets announced in September 2021 to double the size of its business within five years, having entered seven new international markets since 2021.
Originally it had aimed for five new overseas market launches by the end of 2023.
Pano Christou, Pret chief executive, said: "It's been three years of transformation at Pret, in which we've evolved into a truly global, multi-channel brand, and emerged as a stronger business than we were in 2019.
"We're focused on continuing to grow, while constantly innovating to bring Pret's freshly made food and organic coffee to brand new places, from Bishop's Stortford to Bradford and from Italy to India."
The group, which has 446 shops in the UK, said 55 per cent of new openings in Britain since January 2022 have been outside London.
This has seen a boost in Pret's weekend trade, with sales on weekends increasing by 271 per cent since 2021.
More than 70 per cent of Pret shops are now open on the weekends, up 85 per cent on 2021.
