SBLC6003 - Analyzing Business Problems at Pret A Manger: A Case Study

This case study examines the business challenges faced by Pret A Manger, a well-known sandwich chain founded in London. It identifies problems such as the pressure to expand by 15% annually after Bridgepoint's acquisition, the limitations of twin shops without kitchens, and the difficulty of finding suitable locations in a saturated market. The analysis employs SWOT and PEST tools to evaluate the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and the political, economic, social, and technological factors affecting its operations. Proposed solutions include branding the twin shops distinctively as "Pret Express" and providing physical evidence of fresh food delivery through in-store posters, unique packaging, and LED screens displaying delivery information. Desklib offers a wealth of similar case studies and resources for students.

Case Study: PRET A MANGER

Introduction/Background
• Pert A Manger is a well know sandwich chain of
London which was established by two college
friends in 1986. in 2001 the company has 100
shops in U.K, by noticing the success of the
company the McDonald purchase the one-third
share of the company and provide offer to the
company that if they expand their business then
McDonalds will purchase remaining share. But in
2008 McDonalds has sold the shares of Pert A
Manger which is been purchase by Bridgepoint.

Problems identified
• When Bridgepoint purchase the share of Pert A
Manger, Bridgepoint set a challenge that they have
to expand their business by 15% every year.
• To reach the target of 15% the company has made a
decision of opening twin shops, but the size of twin
shops are small that is why the kitchen can not be
installed at these shops.
• Finding a suitable location for twin shops in the era
of market saturation is also rise as a problem
(Pennington,2013).

Analysis and Finding
• For analysis two tools were used SWOT and PEST.
• SWOT
• S- strength: Chemical free and environmental friendly food, established brand
name, international presence, supportive employees
• W- weakness: no direct marketing, less media presence (Morrison, and Thomas,
2011).
• O- opportunities: integration and globalisation provide opportunity to penetrate
new market, introduction of new products, advanced technology, cost cutting
• T- threats: huge competition in market (Zuber, 2011).
• PEST
• P- Political: 33% shares purchased by McDonald
• E- Economic: increased prices of petrol, prices of indigents, devaluation
• S- Social: certificate from Fairtrade and Rainforest alliance
• T- Technology: environmental friendly technology, remote operated trolley for
delivery food, save time and human capital (Staff, 2011).

Solutions
• Branding Exercise: the twin shop do not have kitchen the
company can use this concept innovatively by distinguish them
from parent shops (Menegaki, 2012). They can use line with twin
shop Pret Express or Pret A Manger Express (Parker, 2012).
• Physical Evidence: to prove that company is keeping their
promise of delivering fresh food they can provide physical
evidence like, they can use in-store posters to let the people know
that the food which is bring by trolley is fresh (Gordon, 2012).
they can display the location of parent shop, the food delivered to
twin shop it package should be different from parent shop food,
display number of deliveries and next deliver on LED screen the
screen give more focus on putting line the food is derived fresh to
LED screen (Frow and Payne, 2011).

References
Pennington, R.G., (2013). Change performance to change the culture. Journal of
Industrial and Commercial Training, 35(6), pp.251-255.
Menegaki, A.N., (2012). A social marketing mix for renewable energy in Europe
based on consumer stated preference surveys. Renewable Energy, 39(1), pp.30-39.
Gordon, R., (2012). Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing
mix. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(2), pp.122-126.
Parker, I., (2012). An English sandwich in New York. Journal of Guardian, pp.2-4.
Frow, P. and Payne, A., (2011). A stakeholder perspective of the value proposition
concept. European journal of marketing, 45(1/2), pp.223-240.
Morrison, A. and Thomas, R., (2011). The future of small firms in the hospitality
industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 11(4),
pp.148-154.
Zuber, A., (2011). McD buys stake in UK's Pret A Manger chain in attempt to
expand offerings. Nation's Restaurant News, 35(7), pp.1-2.
Staff, S., (2011). Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Science, 331(6018),
pp.692-693.

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