Fast-food restaurant chain A&W Food Services of Canada is partnering with Pret A Manger on a development plan to expand the Pret brand across Canada.
This comes following the completion of a successful two-year trial period first announced on June 2, 2022.
“Food Services has exclusive master franchisor rights to Canada for the Pret brand and will introduce Pret’s products to Canadian consumers in a variety of carefully selected formats, beginning with a national roll out of Pret coffee in A&W restaurants this fall,” said A&W in a news release.
Bruce Winder, Retail Analyst & Author, said the expansion of the Pret brand in Canada is exciting and offers Canadians additional choice.
“Based on the assortment of food and beverages offered by Pret I think they have a good chance of success. Their healthy menu hits the sweet spot for consumers looking to eat well on the go,” he said.
“The tie up with A&W is smart as it gives Pret a partner that knows the Canadian food service market well and has been successful over a number of decades. A&W receives a new stream of cash flow and a more diversified offering, appealing to a wider market.
“This win/win approach has been used extensively as food service brands take on international markets.”
Michael Kehoe, Broker of Record for Fairfield Commercial Real Estate said the announcement of the A&W / Pret A Manger development plan for Canadian expansion is great news on the national food service scene.
“The Pret global vibe will infuse fresh energy into the A&W brand with new menu items and a unique coffee offering. It’s positive news for both brands and I am looking forward to seeing how it is rolled out across the various locational formats,” he said.
Pret A Manger is a sandwich and organic coffee chain commonly referred to as Pret and based in the United Kingdom. The first shop opened in London in 1986 where the company is headquartered today. Pret’s sandwiches, salads and wraps are freshly handmade each day in shop kitchens using quality ingredients and all coffees, teas and hot chocolates are organic. Pret operates more than 650 shops worldwide with more than 9,500 team members in 18 markets (United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Hong Kong, France, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, India, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium, Singapore, Germany, Canada, Italy, Spain, Qatar, Greece).
“The Pret brand was first offered in a trial pop-up format in certain A&W restaurants in 2022, and expanded to a first stand alone Pret location in downtown Toronto in 2024. The development plan calls for Food Services continuing to increase the number of physical locations offering Pret products across Canada over an initial ten-year development term. Sales of Pret products within A&W restaurants in the Royalty Pool will be subject to the 3% royalty paid by Food Services to the Fund,” said A&W.
A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. is a corporation amalgamated under the laws of Canada and is 100 per cent Canadian owned. A&W is the nation’s second largest hamburger restaurant company with over 1,000 locations coast-to-coast.
In January, Pret opened its first standalone shop in Toronto at 90 Adelaide St.. Since 2022, pop-up shops have introduced Toronto and Vancouver locals to Pret’s organic coffee and freshly made grab-and-go food. This new standalone Pret shop is the next evolution of the beloved brand’s expansion to Canada, said the company at the time.
“This expansion into Canada is a natural next step for Pret globally. We are committed to bringing the Pret brand to more people, wherever they are and after the warm welcome from locals at our Pret pop-ups in Canada, we’re excited to continue expanding our footprint and menu offerings to more Canadians,” said Jorrie Bruffett, President, Pret A Manger North America.
In 2022 when Pret opened two pop-ups in Toronto and one in Vancouver, Susan Senecal, Chief Executive Officer of A&W Food Services of Canada, told Retail Insider that Canadians have long been calling for bringing Pret to their community, having experienced the iconic coffee and sandwich shop in London, UK, New York City, and beyond.
“A&W Canada has admired Pret for a while. It started with a love of its fresh sandwiches and salads and grew from there. We approached the brand and got talking, then realized that we have a lot in common and so do the people in the businesses,” she said.
“Pret’s fresh grab-and-go concept is perfect for guests with busy urban lifestyles – plus Vancouver and Toronto are both large international cities. From there, it was a race to see where we could build our first pop-up the fastest! We have strong franchisee interest in both markets and in this case, Vancouver was ready first.
“For Pret, it’s an exciting expansion into a new market. Canadians come to A&W for the best tasting burger made with simple, high-quality ingredients and now with Pret we can expand that to fresh-made sandwiches, salads, soups and pastries, prepared right in our kitchens.”
According to officials, Pret was started by two college friends who set out to create the sort of food they craved but couldn’t find anywhere – nutritious, simple and delicious, prepared fresh every morning. They opened their first shop in London in 1986 and the brand has since revolutionized the concept of sandwich making and on-the-go meals, expanding all over the world, said the company.
Isn’t this just a rerun of the Wendy’s/Tim Horton’s tie-up of decades ago? When Wendy’s acquired Tim’s and started pairing its restaurants with Tim’s locations, it was billed as the perfect marriage as it partnered Tim’s coffee and fresh baked goods business with Wendy’s burgers and fries at many restaurants. The setup was supposed to drive traffic all day–Wendy’s at the time was weak in breakfast/coffee and Tim’s didn’t have a strong dinner offering. Instead the marriage went bad fairly quickly and neither chain did much to “round out” the other’s business.
So why should the A&W/Pret tie-up work? Many of the same arguments in favour of the Tim’s/Wendy’s pairing are being made again with this deal. If it didn’t work for Wendy’s, why should A&W have any more success?
The bigger issue is that I can’t see that Pret brings anything to Canada that we don’t already have. There are plenty of places offering fresh-made sandwiches, organic food and salads.
Pret Manger is an amazing grab and go cafe in the UK. Canada does not offer enough of these healthy options in convenient areas throughout all major cities.
Sept. 4/24
Heart broken in South Vancouver! After a few years of enjoying PRET food available nearby, I come home from a summer vacation to find the outlet closed! How sad! We miss the PRET sandwiches – – best ever and best offered anywhere… Please open stand alone shops in Vancouver, especially along the Canada Line! What a loss…. please return SOON. Thx Gordon H. Vancouver