Fresh Food, Organic Coffee, Animal Cruelty

Pret prides itself on ‘doing the right thing’ and promised to phase out Frankenchickens by 2026. These chickens are in constant pain from growing so quickly and suffer numerous health problems because of their abnormal size. Businesses like Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have already successfully moved away from this cruel practice.

Pret had eight years to meet its deadline, but it didn’t. In fact, it has made ZERO progress in removing Frankenchickens from its shops. This failure has condemned millions of vulnerable animals to lives of severe suffering.

Animals Suffer, Pret Profits

Fast-growing chickens – also known as Frankenchickens – have been selectively bred to grow to a massive size in just over a month. This rate of growth is far too fast and causes lameness and broken bones. And with lungs too small to provide all the oxygen needed for their enormous bodies, many die from heart failure.

Pret CEO Pano Christou knows what these chickens endure, but refuses to take responsibility. Hold him accountable by signing our petition.

Doing The Wrong Thing

Pret makes a big deal of its charitable endeavours, but is this just a cover for its history of negligence and selfishness?

Gambling With Customers’ Lives

For years, Pret did not label all the allergens in its ‘artisan’ baguettes. Despite numerous cases of serious allergic reactions, Pret maintained a labelling practice that a coroner later called ‘inadequate’.

It took the tragic and preventable death of a young girl – who died from eating a baguette with undisclosed sesame seeds – for Pret to finally start listing all allergens in 2019. It now boasts of doing so two years before a new law required it to – the same law brought in following her death.

Today, Pret sells its customers ‘fresh’ sandwiches made from chickens that cannot even stand up and are left to rot in their own waste.

Making Staff Poorer

Pret says it has a culture of generosity, but this doesn’t extend to fair pay. In 2021, a ‘temporary’ pay cut was made permanent, leaving shop staff with 6% less money than they had before.

In the exact same year, CEO Pano Christou got a £4 million bonus and a 27% pay rise. For this much money, he could at least take the time to tell us how Pret will spare chickens from a life of agony.

A Royal Scandal

Pano Christou chairs the New Employment Opportunities Network, part of the Royal Foundation’s Homewards programme, which helps people at risk of homelessness into work. 

This is vital work, but leading on social responsibility means keeping your own promises too. Pano can show the same leadership on animal protection by publishing a clear plan for Pret to phase out Frankenchickens.