Pret employees to get £1,000 bonus after sandwich chain is sold for £1.5bn to Krispy Kreme owner
THOUSANDS of Pret A Manger workers will be handed a £1,000 bonus when the company's planned sale goes through.
The British sandwich shop, which has 381 stores in the UK, has been bought by Krispy Kreme's owner JAB in a deal worth £1.5billion.
Pret A Manger boss Clive Schlee took to Twitter to tell the company's 12,000 workers about their unexpected bonus following the sale.
He tweeted: "Today is a big day for @Pret. As we welcome JAB, we’ll be thanking the people who really matter by giving each of our 12,000 employees £1,000 when the deal completes."
Pret's employee receive a typical wage of £8.25, according to the company - that's more than the minimum wage which stands at £7.50 for those aged 25 and over.
The company has 530 stores across the world and generated revenues of £879million last year.
A spokesperson for Pret told the Sun Online that the company could not confirm a date for when the planned sale will go through, but added it is expected during the summer.
Pret is to be sold by its private equity owners Bridgepoint, which bought the chain for £362million ten years ago.
We do not know how the sale could affect Pret's menu, prices or the overall company culture.
Olivier Goudet, the chief of executive of JAB, said: "Management’s commitment to customer service, investment in innovation and approach to freshly prepared food position Pret well as it capitalises on evolving consumer taste and lifestyle preferences.
We look forward to working with Clive Schlee and his management team, while promoting the Pret brand and supporting Pret’s impressive culture for the next phase in the company’s growth with JAB.”
Trendy pots of coconut flavoured porridge helped the sandwich chain boost profits by almost £30 million in 2016.
Earlier this year, Pret announced it will test a 10p deposit return scheme for plastic bottle in a bid to slash plastic waste
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The scheme could be extended across the UK during autumn this year.
In April the chain was forced to remove adverts from Facebook and its own website, which claimed its food is preservative-free or made of "natural" ingredients.
Publishing the findings , the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the claims were "misleading" as some of Pret's food does contain artificial additives.
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