Pret A Manger - Organization - Management

Management

The organisational structure of Pret a Manger is divided between its stores and the main offices. The London head office is the hub for the UK stores, while the office in New York City is the hub for the American stores. Each store contains levels of positions that range from Team Member to the General Manager of the store. Above the in-store manager is the Operations Manager who is in charge of a group of roughly 10 stores, and above that are more senior management positions based out of the offices that are tasked with coordinating an entire region and maintaining communication with the company’s CEO in London. All the office employees are paired with a “buddy shop” where they work at least two days a year.

While the uppermost levels of management are located in the offices, not all the office jobs are above the store jobs in the organizational structure. Pret does not franchise any of its stores, in order to keep management strategies uniform across the entire brand. Orders do not strictly flow from the head offices in a top-down manner; instead, the channel of communication between the executives and the stores is open in both directions.

Pret a Manger promotes an internal culture as described in a leaflet entitled “Pret Behaviours.” The Behaviours break down traits into three categories: passion, clear talking and team working – and identify specific behaviours as “Don’t want to see,” “Want to see,” and “Pret perfect!” The number of Behaviours Pret hopes an employee exhibits increases with ones rank within the company: Team Members should practise around six Behaviours, Managers ten, and the company’s executives all of them.