As reported by the Evening Standard, London’s final two Veggie Pret sites on Broadwick Street in Soho and Great Eastern Street in the City will be converted to Pret’s regular shop format on 19 February.
A third branch in Manchester will follow suit on 26 February.
Veggie Pret first launched in the summer of 2016 and at its height grew to 10 sites that were almost entirely concentrated in the capital.
In 2019, Pret acquired rival café chain Eat with plans to convert much of its 94-strong estate to vegetarian-only sites. However, in December 2022 the group announced it would be jettisoning the bulk of its Veggie Pret estate.
Pret says the decision to ditch the final Veggie sites was driven by the fact vegetarian and vegan options were now widely available at all its stores, giving customers less reason to seek out the specialist shops.
“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,” says Katherine Bagshawe, UK food & coffee director at Pret A Manger.
“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.”