Pret opened in London in 1986. College friends, Sinclair and Julian, made proper sandwiches using natural, preservative-free ingredients. The two of them had woefully little experience in the world of business. They created the sort of food they craved but couldn’t find anywhere else. Pret grew and grew. And grew.

Pret arrived in America back in 2000, opening the first store just down from the New York Stock Exchange in July; quickly opening more stores as New Yorkers took to our natural, tasty food. 

Because Pret is private we don’t face the same pressure to grow that a public company does. We will develop slowly, one shop at a time. There are about 150 Pret shops at the moment. Most of them are in the UK where Pret is a household name. Our stores in Hong Kong are spreading the message of natural, wonderfully tasty food to Asia.

Every week we receive a bunch of customer comments asking us to open in other parts of the US. Bear with us. We will expand in New York and then, who knows, we may be opening up the block from you...