Pret A Manger's chief executive Pano Christou has revealed that five to 10 per cent of stores will close across the UK as trade is reported to be down.
Bristol has Pret stores in Broadmead and Victoria Street in Bristol city centre and it is not known yet how the potential closures will affect the Bristol branches.
The Pret stores reopened for delivery and for people to go in and buy food and drink back on May 11.
Pret branches can be found across many major cities around the UK including Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester.
But many of these stores including the one in Bristol has suffered as a result of the coronavirus pandemic as trade is down by 60 per cent in Bristol's stores.
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In branches across Manchester and Liverpool trade is down by 70 per cent.
Sales at its site in Paternoster Square, near St Paul’s Cathedral, are thought to be down 90 per cent, while the café below its head office in Victoria had average daily sales of £1,000 last week compared with the usual £6,000.
Pret expects sales to creep up to no more than 60 per cent of normal levels in the coming months.
The week before last it had sales of £2.7m, compared with £16.5m in normal times.
Christou told The Sunday Times he was having “sleepless nights” about having to tell staff of impending job losses.
“There’s no easy way round this,” he said. “It depends come September if the business recovers or not. Clearly we can’t keep people on what we would have if business was back at 100 per cent. We could see 5 per cent to 10 per cent of our stores close in the UK.”
Since May, the company has been working with professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal and property agent CWM to examine the best options to “adjust its business model in a new retail environment”.
It’s thought up to 45 of Pret’s 434 UK stores are at risk.
Last week the firm closed two stores, in Newcastle and Gateshead, deemed “no longer financially viable”.
Last month, in a leaked video Christou told staff of the JAB Holdings-backed business an announcement regarding its job situation would be made on 8 July.
As reported by Propel last week, Pret is trialling evening delivery from seven shops and a new hub kitchen in north west London.
The evening menu will be available from 5pm and feature new salad bowls, hot items and Pret’s Heat Me At Home range.
