Pret A Manger scraps ‘too good to be true’ free coffee subscription

Pret A Manger is revamping its loyalty subscription, scrapping the offer of five free coffees a day, with the company saying it is “time to rethink” the offer.

Currently, Club Pret subscribers pay £30 a month for access to five free Barista-made drinks a day, alongside 20% off everything else in-store. From September, subscribers will get 50% off up to five barista-made drinks a day for a monthly fee of £10.

Pret UK and Ireland managing director Clare Clough says the scheme served the business very well during the pandemic, but that it now needs to re-evaluate how it works.

The sandwich chain has previously said the subscription scheme had been critical to its post-pandemic recovery, in 2022 it was held up as a key pillar of its return to profit.

In an email communicating the change to current subscribers, she described the deal under the £30-per-month scheme as almost seeming “too good to be true” and said it had been vital in reconnecting with consumers post-pandemic and bringing in new ones.

Pret’s price rise comms crowned your marketing campaign of 2022

“I know the end of the current subscription deal is disappointing, not least because of the significant savings you have enjoyed,” she told current subscribers. “But I hope you will understand why we are making the change and appreciate the extraordinary circumstance that led to the creation of the scheme.”

In 2022, Pret increased the monthly subscription fee from £20 to £25 a month (which would later be increased to £30). Its 2022 communications around the change were held up as the gold standard for communications around price by Marketing Week columnist and Mini MBA professor Mark Ritson. It went on to be voted by Marketing Week readers as the 2022 campaign of the year.

The email sent to current subscribers today asserts that the subscription “will still be the best offer on the high street” but does not go further than that. In a statement on Pret’s website, Clough added that the subscription will now be “a much more accessible price than the £360 a year people have to pay for the current scheme”.

‘Value for everyone’

Pret’s focus will now be on value for all customers, not just for subscribers, Clough said in the statement on the website.

“Given the majority of our customers are not Club Pret subscribers, our priority now is to focus on better value for everyone,” she said.

The statement highlighted price cuts the company would now be making. For example, it will be reducing Pret’s signature 100% organic Arabica Filter Coffee to 99p, and cutting the price of its all-butter croissant to £1.99.

While the statement on the website highlights the cost cuts that Pret is investing in, the email to subscribers simply says it needs to “balance” its loyalty offering with providing value for all.

Speaking to Marketing Week in September, Pret’s UK head of marketing Becci Dive said subscriber retention was increasingly core to its strategy – and that using Club Pret data for personalisation was paramount to its success.