Pret A Manger has abandoned plans to double the price of its popular coffee subscription service following customer backlash, confirming the monthly fee will remain at £5 instead of increasing to £10 at the end of March.

The high street chain's Club Pret subscription currently offers customers 50 per cent off up to five drinks per day. This revised offering was introduced last September when Pret controversially scrapped its previous £30 monthly subscription that had provided five free drinks daily and a 20 per cent food discount.

"Our Club Pret monthly subscription fee will remain at just £5. We believe in offering high-quality, organic coffee and barista-made drinks at fantastic value," Pret announced in an email to customers on Tuesday.

The original subscription scheme, launched during the pandemic, proved extremely popular but presented financial challenges for the company, as subscribers could theoretically obtain up to £400 worth of coffee each month for their £30 fee.

Clare Clough, UK and Ireland managing director at Pret, had previously acknowledged the generous nature of the original offer, stating: “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.

“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.”

This latest decision follows recent efforts by the chain to address pricing concerns, including reducing the cost of its best-selling products. The company has cut its filter coffee price to 99p, down from £1.70 in some locations, while a typical tuna sandwich now costs £3.70, reduced from £4.25 during the peak of the inflation crisis.

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