Pret a Manger will stop its subscription that offered members “free drinks,” nearly four years after the deal was established in the UK to attract customers back after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a move that did not sit well with some customers, the coffee chain announced it was “time to rethink” the Club Pret offer.
Rather than five drinks a day and a 20% discount on food for a cost of £30 a month, it will now charge £10 for a subscription that offers half-priced drinks.
The subscription, which has provided five free hot or iced barista-made drinks, has been running for four years. Pret raised the fee and added a discount for food last year, which resulted in two sets of price tags on its shelves.
Pret said it would take off 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 made known in September. The fee will start at £5 a month until March 31, 2025, for existing and new subscribers, and then rise to £10.
There was a hostile reaction to the change from some quarters, with people displaying their frustration on social media.
Pret a Manger returned to profit last year for the first time since 2018, with the launch of its subscription service helping the coffee and bakery chain rebound after the COVID crisis.
The group, which suffered during the COVID-19 lockdowns when office staff stayed at home, said sales increased 20% to £430 million in the six months to the end of June 2023. Pret’s subscription service generated 57.9 million redemptions globally in 2022, up two-thirds from a year before.