Last year I wrote a blog post asking customers how Pret could create more delicious vegetarian food. I was surprised by the response – almost 10,000 of you voted on the subject and Pret learned a lot from your views. You asked for more vegetarian choices and clearer labelling. I promised that we would take action and run a “call to arms” marketing campaign for veggie food.

Today marks the launch of “Not Just For Veggies”, a campaign aiming to highlight that you don't need to be vegetarian to enjoy eating meat-free foods. We are not trying to evangelise and I won’t be forgetting that our number one selling sandwich in the UK is the Chicken Caesar & Bacon Baguette! The idea behind it is that we should all try to lean towards eating veggie choices more often. Pret’s role is to make that choice easy and delicious.

We've expanded our meat-free options to celebrate the campaign, with tasty additions such as the Chana Chaat Flat Bread, a vegan Red Tapenade & Avo SuperBowl salad and a Mushroom & Avocado Sushi Salad. We will also sell two new veggie Chef’s Specials each month throughout the summer and invite customers to tell us if our chefs have “hit the spot or lost the plot” with the new recipes.

For the month of June, Pret will convert an existing Soho shop to become vegetarian only. We are doing this both to challenge our chefs to come up with delicious veggie and vegan food and to ask our customers what they think should end up on Pret’s shelves permanently.

Our chefs are working hard to replace over 40 meat and fish dishes with new and exciting ingredients. This entails hours of testing and lots of patience from our loyal suppliers. Our takings in the shop will probably drop, but the pop-up will signal that Pret is serious about providing veggie and vegan options. And who knows, we might just find the next bestseller in the process.

My neighbour is 10 years older than me and he tells me that the older you get, the more interest you take in how food makes you feel after you’ve finished eating it. He’s absolutely right.

I want Pret to help customers with this journey – making it easier for them to find food that makes them feel great and incorporate more delicious meat-free options into their diets.