Pret scraps its five-a-day coffee subscription
From 3 September the coffee chain will change its Club Pret membership to offering a 50% discount on up to five barista-made drinks per day for £5 per month until 31 March 2025, then £10 per month thereafter.
Currently, Club Pret members get five free coffees each day as well as a 20% discount on food for a subscription of £30 a month.
The coffee chain launched its coffee subscription YourPret Barista back in September 2020 to win back customers after lockdown with a monthly subscription costing just £20 for five drinks. The company later rose the price to £25 and last year it rebranded the service to Club Pret with the price rising again, to £30 per month.
“It’s almost four years since we introduced our coffee subscription at the height of the pandemic, and I’m proud of the role Club Pret has played for us and our customers since,” says Clare Clough, Pret’s UK&I MD.
“It was an innovative way to reconnect with our loyal customers and introduce Pret to tens of thousands of new ones, bringing customers back into our shops with an offer that almost seemed ‘too good to be true’. Four years and over a quarter of a billion coffees later, we have decided that it’s time to rethink how it works.”
“We know this is a change. But with Club Pret subscription, our coffees, teas, coolers and iced drinks will continue to be the best offer on the high street, and at a much more accessible price than the £360 a year people have to pay for the current scheme.
"Given the majority of our customers are not Club Pret subscribers, our priority now is to focus on better value for everyone.”
At the same time, Pret has introduced a number of price discounts, with its Arabica Filter Coffee now priced at 99p and the price of its croissant falling to from £2.30 to £1.99. This follows price reductions made earlier this year to the free-range egg mayo sandwich and tuna baguette.
Subscription challenges
Pret has faced a number of issues with its subscription model in the past few months. In March it was forced to crack down on members that were sharing their free coffees with non-subscribers via a QR code, by making people users have to log into the app to claim their free drink.
The following month it had to refund some users of its Club Pret subscription service after technical issues meant they were unable to access its app.
The company has also faced competition for its subscription model by rival high street chains. In May healthy fast food group Leon launched the UK’s cheapest high street coffee subscription model Roast Rewards. For £25 a month subscribers receive up to five barista-made drinks a day along with a 20% discount on its breakfast and all-day food menu - excluding meal deals.
