London bakers ‘Bread A Manger’ claims Pret is trying to cancel them

French bakers south of the River Thames in Bermondsey, who run the ‘Bread A Manger’ bakery, have claimed that coffee giant Pret a Manger are trying to get them to change their business name.

The coffee megalith with over 300 stores in London, reportedly sent a letter to Bertrand Kerleo and Fouad Saber, telling the artisan bakers their name is too similar to Pret’s and sells similar products.

The owners of Bread A Manger say their business is nothing like Pret and that their business specialises in freshly baked pastries and bread.

Speaking to MyLondon, they said it would cost them around £8,000 to make the changes they claim Pret has asked themto make, including new signage, branding and logos.

Mr Saber said: “I want to fight. I didn’t work hard for two years to be forced to change by a big company.”

“I can’t understand Pret. We’re an artisan bakery. We are not fast food. In Pret you push a button to make the coffee and we have a barista and proper coffee machine.

“We are French. We can use the name we want to as French. We didn’t see any comparison with Pret. We didn’t think about it. Our customers didn’t say we look like Pret. When we created the company it wasn’t a problem.”

Bread A Manger is a small business set up in May 2020 amidst the first national lockdown coming to an end. The owners began with deliveries before taking control of a shop unit in Bermondsey in the June following restrictions being lightened.

Jo Holinska, head of operations in London at Pret A Manger, said: “Thousands of Pret team members across London have worked hard to earn the trust of customers in the city over the past four decades, and although we appreciate it when other businesses take inspiration from what we do, this name is just too close, especially when many of the products are similar too.

“We’re more than happy to give the business the time it needs to make these changes and to provide any support we can, and we’ll be getting in touch again to see if we can resolve this in a fair and amicable way."