Pret A Manger is closing the majority of its vegetarian and vegan cuisine-only stores - and only two Veggie Prets will continue to run under the title.
The two surviving Veggie Pret sites that will remain will be in London in Shoreditch and in Soho, where the first site opened.
Out of the 10 green outlets, four have closed down and one, the Canary Wharf site, has rebranded into a regular Pret. All employees at the four closed shops have been relocated to other nearby Pret shops.
Two other Veggie Prets in Exmouth Market in London and Manchester’s Deansgate are to be monitored on their demand in the area.
In a statement from Pret explaining the decision to close the veggie branches, the chain said it was driven by the fact vegetarian options were now "widely available" at all its stores, giving customers less reason to seek out the specialist shops.
A Pret spokesman said: “Over half our menu is vegetarian or vegan, with meat-free and vegan options accounting for one in three of our main meal sales.”
Pret said that the remaining Veggie branches will serve as an “innovation hub” for Pret’s veggie offerings as its focus now is to continue to grow its vegetarian and vegan offerings in every Pret shop.
It added: “More of our customers are choosing veggie options but may not see themselves as full-time vegetarians, so all our shops will continue to offer a majority meat-free and vegan menu and our remaining Veggie Prets will continue to develop new vegan and vegetarian options to be rolled out to our classic Prets.”
Pret A Manger has almost 400 stores across the UK and at its peak, there were 10 Veggie Prets.
The rise in Veggie Pret came as more and more people in the UK identified as eating a plant-based diet throughout the 2010s.
According to The Vegan Society, the number of vegans quadrupled between 2014 and 2019, with around 600,000 people now currently believed to be on a plant-based diet.
