An Analysis of Pret a Manger's Strategies

Pret a Manger is a popular UK-based sandwich chain that has succeeded without advertising through its focus on high-quality products, employee satisfaction, and strong brand reputation. The company's success can be attributed to its commitment to sustainability, with initiatives such as reducing food waste and sourcing ingredients locally. Pret a Manger also prioritizes its employees' happiness and well-being, recognizing that happy staff lead to better customer service. The company has achieved this through various strategies, including flexible working hours, employee benefits, and training programs.

Strategic management
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................4
a) Strategic Purpose of Pret a Manger.............................................................................................4
b) Generic Strategy of Pret a Manger..............................................................................................6
c) Critical evaluation of the strategic choices of Pret a Manger......................................................7
d) Preferred strategic choice for Pret a Manger and its ways to meet stakeholder expectations....8
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................9
References..........................................................................................................................................10
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ABSTRACT
Strategic Management consists of various processes for achieving goals and targets of any
company. The objective of this study are to determine the strategies used by Pret a Manger for
customer satisfaction and achieving market leadership. It consists of external Environment analysis,
Porter's 5 forces, strategic capability analysis and SWOT Analysis of Pret a Manger for
understanding its strengths and weaknesses along with opportunities and threats. The strategies are
critically evaluated with evaluation of technologies, stakeholder expectations and strategic choices.
The preferred strategy of Pret a Manger is focus and its focus is on sustainability approach which
helps in competing with its competitors and create a brand image among people. Company needs to
improve its services and quality to increase market value. It needs to add more products and
services for different customers and need to use traditional marketing techniques also for
influencing people about its brand and quality of food.
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INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is a continuous process which includes proper planning, monitoring,
analysis and assessment of all process which are essential to achieve goals and objectives of
organisation. It is formulation and implementation of all processes and procedures for
accomplishing objectives in appropriate manner (Beske, Land and Seuring, 2014). It provides total
direction to business and develops policies and plans to achieve planned objectives. Pret a manger is
considered for proper analysis of the present report which includes study of external environment,
critical opportunities, threats, strategic capabilities of organisation, strengths and weaknesses,
competitive advantage of the company. Along with these factor, it includes strategic choices and
recommendations for the chosen company. In the end, complete report is summarised in the form of
conclusion with key findings.
a) Strategic Purpose of Pret a Manger
Introduction
Pret a manger is a private fast food chain located in UK that has about 335 shops world
wide. It was founded in 1984 by Jeffrey Hyman and its headquarter is at City of Westminster,
London. The menu of company includes sandwiches, baguettes, pots and desserts, cold drinks, hot
drinks, salads, soups, pastries, cakes, etc. The competitors of Pret a manger are Starbucks
Corporation, Greggs PLC and Costa Coffee.
External Environment analysis:
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Illustration 1: PESTLE Analysis
Source: (How to make a pest diagram in power
point. 2016)

For external analysis of Pret a Manger, PESTLE approach is used and it is described below. Political Factor: With increase in regional integration in UK working customers from
various countries have easy access to visit UK and taste the food of Pret a Manger.
Government of UK has raised the meat establishments standards which leads to increase in
cost of processing (Dudovskiy, 2014). Economic Factor: Recession in UK brings financial crisis and this also affects the
economic status of Pret a Manager. This leads to effect investment capitals, food processing,
less domestic purchasing, etc. It affects the customers of Pret a Manger also which effects
financial position and market reputation of the company. Social Factors: Company gives various discounts, offers for on occasions or festivals which
leads to increase in number of customers. It uses natural ingredients for making food items
and charity the remaining unsold food which for fulfilling its responsibility towards society. Technological Factors: Pret a manger uses various food machines for making food properly
and of best taste. It uses touchscreen vendors, LED alert system, webcam-enabled
monitoring, ERP systems, etc for effective working (Pullen, 2012). Legat Factors: Government of UK changes its laws and policies time to time which affetcs
the working environment of company. In relation to this, company needs to redesign their
policies and procedures which consumes more time and resources.
 Environmental Factor: Company uses natural ingredients which helps in keeping
environment safe and healthy. Use of paper board at the place of sealed plastics is also an
important move of firm towards keeping clean ad safe environment (Nestle, 2013).
Business Canvas Model:
The business canvas model for Pret a manger is as follows.
Who will help
you?
Key Partners:
Raw material
suppliers
Utensil suppliers
Waste
Management
Companies
Green markets
NYC department
of sanitation
Local suppliers
How do you do
it?
Key Activities:
The key activity
of firm is
sustainability.
It sold unsold left
food to the poor
people and
charities
What do you
do?
Value
Propositions:
By value
propositions,
firm tries to
satisfy customers
by solving their
problems and
issues.
It reduces the
cost related to
the waste
management by
providing
How do you
interact?
Customer
Relationships:
Company
maintains the
customer
relationships with
each customer
segment
It takes feedbacks
for improving
their customer
services.
By building trust
and loyalty
Who do you
help?
Customer
Segments:
Health
concious
customers
Office members
Young people
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compost
facilities.
It acquire
environment and
health concious
consumers by the
help of branding
and awareness
What do you
need?
Key Resources:
Financing
Staff members
Customers
Quality of food
How do you
reach them?
Channels:
Website
Direct selling
Delivery services
Proper
communication
What it will cost?
Cost Structure:
75.9$ million
How much will you make?
Revenue stream:
510 million GBP
Porter's 5 forces:
 Threat of new entrants: Threat of new entry in food industry is low due to the high cost and
low margin of grocery. Pret a Manger has popularity and brand image and it is difficult to
any new firm to compete with it at such a big level. Supplier Power: The threat of supplier power for Pret a Manger is low. The company's
supplier are abide by the quality standards. There are large number of suppliers available but
their switching cost of suppliers are low (Galizzi and Venturini, 2012). Buyers Power: Bargaining power of buyers are low in this industry, Pret a Manger provide
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Illustration 2: Porter's 5 forces
Source : (Porter's Five Force. 2016)

quality food to the customers in affordable price which satisfies them.
 Threat of Substitutes: Threat of substitutes for Pret a Manger is between medium and high
as there is high competition with Starbucks, Costa coffee, etc which can work as substitute
for people.
Strategic Capability analysis:
Strategic capabilities of Pret a Manger includes Threshold and distinctive capabilities which
are explained below. Distinctive Capabilities: It is a set of capabilities Pret a Manger uses for performing better
than its competitors such as Starbucks, Costa coffee, etc. Distinctive capabilities are
globalised strategy, special sandwiches, continuous innovation, offering fresh food and
minimising wastage (Heinz, 2013).
 Threshold Capabilities: Threshold resource of Pret a Manger is providing extensive training
to staff members for cooking quality and delicious food and serving them in appropriate
manner, ability to make sandwiches, salads etc, serving fresh food and charity of left unsold
food to homeless children.
Value chain analysis:
The % of operating cost of each activity is described below:
 Inbound activity= 20%
 Operations = 30%
 Outbound activity = 15%
 Marketing and Sales = 10%
 Services = 5%
 margin = 20%
SWOT Analysis of Pret a Manger
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Strengths:
 It is UK's most environmental friendly food industry. It invests very much on its staff and quality food which helps in maintaining standards and
quality of their products (Moon and et.al., 2014).
Weaknesses
 It does not engage in mass media which does not aware people about its products and brad
image. It is not designed for family treat as their targets are office workers and rich costumers.
Opportunities
 Globalization and integration provides it a new opportunity to enhance its market
 They can introduce new products as they are only known for their sandwiches and drinks Use of various technologies can help company in cutting cost and increasing profit
(Trematerra, 2013).
Threats
 Huge competition with other food industries for this company needs to improve food quality
 High prices of fuel affects Pret a Manger and its customers.
b) Propose strategic choices by using Generic Strategy of Pret a Manger
Generic Strategy model is given by Porter for developing effective strategies for proper
strategic management. By using strategies suggested by the Porter companies can increase their
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Illustration 3: SWOT Analysis
Source : (Cohn, 2016.)

market position, brand image and achieve their objectives. Companies can achieve competitive
advantage by lowering their costs and differentiating their products and services from competitors.
They can achieve high profitability by focusing on a narrow target in the market. Competitive
strategies of industries focus on the ways through which they can achieve a good position in market.
Pret a Manger also uses this strategy for getting more profit and improving its market position. The
Generic strategy for Pret a Manger is explained below.
Cost Leadership Strategy:
As per the porter's Model, Cost leadership strategy is about minimising the costs to offer
products at low prices. Pret a Manger can provide low cost food products as compare to its
competitors by maintaining their quality. Company can uses this strategy to attract more customers
of diverse interest and to achieve market leadership. It can use various food machines and other
devices for cutting cost and increasing profitability. These technologies will make Pret a Manger to
invest their money in different fields or in improving quality and taste of their sandwiches and
drinks for attracting more people(Wyness, Butriss and Stanner, 2012).
Differentiation Strategy:
Company can differentiate its products and services to compete with its competitors and to
charge premium price for its products. Pret a Manger is famous for its sandwiches and drinks, its
quality ad taste makes it different from other company's products. It uses paper board at the place of
plastic bags which is also an innovative and healthy way to work in different pattern. The message
of sustainability makes it differ from other food companies such as Starbucks and Costa Coffee. It
can deliver the message with wit and can add a bit of humour in this. By sharing views and ideas it
provide customers an opportunity to judge whether they are agree with them or not. Its strategy of
offering left unsold food to charities or homeless children also makes it differ from other
companies. This shows that how much company is aware about the safety and health of people and
environment as well. Office people can be the target of this company along with family for
increasing sales and inviting people from diversified group (Hirsch and Gschwandtner, 2013).
Focus Strategy:
In this, companies can select narrow competitive scope within food industry or can give
more focus to one or more customer segments. The focus of Pest a Manger is on sustainability, it is
completely bounded to its brand and products. It can uses organic and natural ingredients for
cooking food and other drinks. It can also deliver its message of sustainability through its posters on
walls, packaging, menu, etc which will inform people about something that Pest really cares. This
strategy can help the firm in inviting more health conscious people. It can focus on improving
quality and taste of its products i.e. sandwiches and drinks so that no other food industry takes its
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place (Pomeranz, 2013).
c) Critical evaluation of the strategic choices of Pret a Manger
Differentiation Strategy
According to the Galizzi and Venturini, 2012, “If companies are not responding to the
customers on social media then it means that they are decreasing their number of customers”
(Galizzi and Venturini, 2012). In favour of it, Pret a Manger can use social media for responding to
its customers and for analysing their perceptions towards its products and services. In respect of it,
company can use social media daily and checks its twitter feed for evaluating customer response. In
favour of above statement Nestle, 2013, stated that “Differentiation is right technique for increasing
market value and brand image of industry” (Nestle, 2013). Pret can use innovative and different
techniques for attracting people towards it and to compete with Starbucks. It is famous for its
sandwiches and drinks, for inviting more people it can improve accelerating its menu. For example
it has started Italian sandwiches which is getting popularity in market. As per the Moon and et.al.,
2014, “Sustainability is most preferred thing now a days by people as they are more health concious
as compare to before” (Moon and et.al., 2014). Firm needs to agree with this statement and can also
apply the same thing in its business.
Cost Leadership
Pret a Manger can provide safe and fresh food to the people which create good image of
company in their mind. In favour of the above evidence, Hirsch and Gschwandtner, 2013, identified
that “Effective cost leadership strategy can increase profitability and number of customers of firm”
(Hirsch and Gschwandtner, 2013). This food industry can invest its profit on improving the menus
and optimising the impact of window displays (Pret a Manger. 2015).
On the other hand Lee, Kim and Park, 2012, found that “For influencing people and to
achieve market leadership business should use innovations along with creativity are important”
(Lee, Kim and Park, 2012). In respect to this statement, firm can use strategy of serving coffee and
other food products in 60 minutes with warm wishes in ear satisfies customers and make them feel
happy. Trematerra, 2013, explored that “Social life and culture of food stores influence people to sit
their and enjoy their orders” (Trematerra, 2013). Pret a Manger needs to follow this and provide
quirky atmosphere which can be a mixer of upbeat and helpful. The staff members should be
cheerful at tills, baristas shouting for orders etc and infrastructure of store should be attractive that it
can influence people along with the creative walls and lines on them such as “Never, Never, Never
Give up”, etc (Moore, 2015).
According to Pomeranz, 2013 “Technologies are right hand of companies now a days which
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cooperates in maintaining work and achieving targets ”(Pomeranz, 2013). It is same for Pret a
Manger, as it can use SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) for its functions and operations. This
framework will help the firm in increasing competitiveness and productivity which results to
delivery of quality products and services.
Stakeholder Expectations:
Galizzi and Venturini, 2012, have stated that “Stakeholders plays important role in growth
and success of any organisation” (Galizzi and Venturini, 2012). Similarly Hirsch and Gschwandtner,
2013 have said that “It is prime responsibility of the firm to fulfil the expectations of their
stakeholders” (Hirsch and Gschwandtner, 2013). As per these statements, Pret a Manger needs to
create good relationships with their customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders by fulfilling their
expectations.
Nestle, 2013, has asserted that “Companies can improve the performance of their employees
by conducting various training programs and by giving them bonuses, incentives, rewards, etc”
(Nestle, 2013). With respect to this, Pret a Manager can satisfy their staff members by increasing
their career opportunities and by providing them various kinds of benefits.
Moon and et.al., 2014, have concluded that “For getting quality of raw materials it is
essential to maintain good relations with the suppliers” (Moon and et.al., 2014). As per this
statement, Pret a Manager can fulfil the expectations of its suppliers by giving them offers,
discounts, etc.
Barriers:
On the other hand Heinz, 2013, demonstrate that “Companies needs to remove their barriers
for getting success and growth in market” (Heinz, 2013). Pret a Manger have many barriers which
somewhere affects its working, customers, market position, brand name, etc. As firm does not use
any traditional marketing method due to which many individuals are unaware about this brand. Its
target are office people or rich people, this target does not allow families to give a trial to its
products and services (Welcome to the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). 2015).
d) Preferred strategic choice for Pret a Manger and its ways to meet stakeholder expectations.
Focus Strategy for meeting stakeholder expectations
On the basis of above analysis and evaluation it is found that the best strategic choice for
Pest a Manger is Focus strategy from porter's generic strategy. As focus of firm can be on
sustainability and due to this it can become UK's most eco friendly company. Now a days people
are become health conscious they prefer those food items which does not harm their body and keep
them healthy. They also like to live in a safe and clean environment. As per this perspective,
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company can use this strategy for inviting more customers and their welfare. Through this strategy,
firm can send a message to people that company is serious about their health and safety which will
results to bring a feeling of trust and loyalty (Moon and et.al., 2014).
For delivering fresh and natural products, company's suppliers are abide with the quality
standards and due to this it supply products from trusted suppliers. They can visit supplier
companies to check their working process ad suggest them to use natural and eco friendly products.
This strategy will make suppliers to use fresh, natural and eco friendly products which results to
more orders and fulfilling expectations of suppliers (Pret a Manger questions suppliers over food
miles. 2006). For providing fresh and natural sandwiches or toasts at the time, organization can use
High speed Panini Grill machine which can fulfil the key objective of firm of providing hot and
high quality toast. After using this machine, firm will results to offer toasts and sandwiches in
different flavours which are also liked by people (Pret A Manger. 2012).
Pret can conduct various training programs for their staff members to improve their skills
and knowledge so that they can treat customers well. As it can suggest members to use phrases and
attractive lines to greet customers by imaging that they are guest at worker's home. They needs to
train them for winning a smile or a nod of recognition from staff member to regular customers as it
impact positively on them. This will make customers to feel happy and well treated which
somewhere fulfil their expectations from the company. It needs to hire employees on the basis of
personality and their attitudes and can offer them to trial run a store and on the basis of old
employees views and observation they hire them otherwise not.
Pret can fulfil employee expectations by offering attractive package to its staff members
with various offers such as incentives, insurance, bonus, etc and provide them various learning
opportunities to enhance their career. It can train cooking staff to remain with their ethics and
values; and to cook balanced, nutritious, natural and fresh food (Taylor, 2013). Along with this, to
maintain the sustainability, it can do programs for animal welfare which will add value to their
supply chain. It needs to do charity activities in market which will give a positive impact and by this
it will able meet its responsibility towards society. Pret uses 90% of recyclable packaging with
simple names and colour which shows its seriousness towards sustainability approach. There are
guidelines for preparing sandwiches, if staff does not fulfil these guidelines then sandwiches does
not reach to the shop floor so it focus on perfection also which makes people to prefer it only
(Moore, 2015).
This shows that, by using focus strategy from the Porter's Generic strategy model, Pret a
Manger can improve its quality of food and can satisfy its customers in more effective manner.
Through this strategy, firm can also fulfil the expectations of its stakeholder.
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CONCLUSION
Strategic management plays important role in achieving objectives and goals of
organisations. It is necessary that strategies used by companies should be appropriate as per their
requirement and takes their business to new heights. Pret a Manger is a fast food company which is
famous for its sandwiches and drinks. Its prime responsibility is to fulfil demands and expectations
of customers. It focus on sustainability approach for attracting people and sending message of
keeping environment safe and clean. It need to remove some barriers to compete with its
competitors Starbucks and Costa coffee.
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