Thanks for visiting our management recruitment pages. Pret’s approach to finding great managers, management retention and career development is pretty unusual. Some would say it’s downright odd.

Because Pret is growing, one store at a time (no rush), we’re always looking for good managers. They’re the life blood of our company. They have made us successful. Pret managers are often the envy of the retail world.

At Pret we believe a manager’s role is to “lead”, not just manage the day-to-day stuff. That may appear obvious, but the truth is too many “managers” working in the hospitality/retail business are simply glorified jailors. They’re given a bunch of keys, a boring manual, a polyester tie and a bunch of tired inmates to watch over.

The experience, passion and sensitivity of a good manager is so easily wasted as they worry about conforming and playing company politics. A manager’s role is demanding! One minute they’re accountants, the next drill sergeants, then they’re psychiatrists, five minutes later they’re nannies, trainers, IT specialists, firemen, first aiders and entrepreneurs. At Pret we are respectful of this.

A leader needs to be listened to and trusted. They need some slack. They need freedom. They need to be nurtured and developed. We all do.

Our founder, Julian Metcalfe, still works at Pret in the UK everyday. He started the first Pret in Victoria, London in 1986 and is the first to admit he was a pretty poor manager then and is still learning new skills today. A manager never stops learning.

About two thirds of our managers are promoted from within. The others joined from the outside – either as assistant managers or managers. We have developed a pretty good fast track training programme. Our “manager in training” programme lasts anywhere between 5 weeks, (for those promoted internally), and 11 weeks (for those who join Pret from other companies) and it doesn’t stop there. You continue learning well after the official programme ends.

It’s hardly surprising that managers have different skills. Some are brilliant at training and developing their staff. Some are truly great with customers, others are stunning business people. Our aim at Pret is to provide all our managers with roughly the same degree of basic skills and then put them in a role, which they will excel at and enjoy.

We run what we call the Pret “traffic light system”. We review our manager’s development quarterly. Red stands for “needs more help, training and development”. Amber for “ready to start taking on more responsibility” and Green for “ready to move on up the ladder right now”.

Our stores have a full-time Ops (Operations Manager) to support managers and staff. This investment in our people is covered by our office, not by the stores' budget. Every shop has a proper “family tree”, including in-house trainers. No other company seems to do this. Odd really.

Pret’s ops, trainers and numerous others at the Bryant Park support centre, have come from Pret shops. They know the form; they’re familiar with the pressure.

We try very hard not to mess up our managers’ valuable time with useless “suits and ties”, consultants and pen pushing buffoons.

Our mantra is (if we had one and we don’t) “If it doesn’t help our customers and staff, why are we doing it?”