The last two dedicated vegetarian branches of Pret a Manger in London are to revert to regular outlets of the sandwich chain eight years after the concept was launched.
The Veggie Pret sites on Broadwick Street in Soho, the site of the original pop-up, and Great Eastern Street in the City will convert on 19 February. A third branch in Manchester will follow suit on 26 February.
The move marks the end of what started as an experiment in summer 2016 and grew to a peak of 10 sites with their distinctive green facias, almost all in London.
The first outlet was originally planned as a one month trial but proved so popular, even attracting praise from Sir Paul McCartney, that it became permanent
However Pret start to rein back on the concept in 2022 when four of the outlets were closed and another converted.
Pret has argued that it no longer needs to operate stand along veggie stores as so much of its range is vegetarian and vegan friendly.
In its latest menu launch last month, Pret rolled out the Veggie Pret classic VLT sandwich to all regular shops, alongside a new Sticky Mushroom Bánh Mì Baguette, Butternut Masala Soup and veggie Meatless Meatball Marinara Hot Roll.
Katherine Bagshawe, UK food & coffee director at Pret A Manger, said: “One in three of all our main meals sales are veggie or vegan-friendly.
“Food innovation at Veggie Pret has helped us develop a huge variety of unique and delicious options that everyone can enjoy, not just veggies, including our bestselling ‘VLT’ sandwich and fan favourite Very Berry Croissant.
“Veggie Pret has served as an innovation hub fundamental to our commitment to supercharge the development of veggie recipes, testing high-quality ingredients and seeing what customers really want. Leaving a lasting impact on our core menu, meat-free and vegan-friendly choices are now such a big part of our everyday offer.
“As our commitment to providing veggie choices continues, we have decided to convert our remaining Veggie Pret shops into classic Pret shops, ensuring an even broader selection with even more customers every day across our 460 shops nationwide.
“Today, every Pret shop is a Veggie Pret shop, with new vegetarian and vegan-friendly products coming onto our menu all the time...Our original Meatless Meatball Hot Wrap was born in Veggie Pret, yet it became a top five bestseller across the whole of Pret within its first week of launching, showing us how customers across all our shops want amazing veggie food.”
