Pret A Manger will join the rest of the High Street tomorrow in counting the cost of Rachel Reeves’ tax raid, battering retailers with cost increases.
The coffee and sandwich chain’s bosses will outline the mounting cost of the Chancellor’s decision to raise National Insurance Contributions from employers and introduce an inflation-busting rise in the national living wage ahead of its full-year results which are due to be released the following day, The Mail on Sunday understands.
Pret reported staff costs of more than £251 million in 2023, according to accounts filed with Companies House.
Its boss, Pano Christou, is expected to reveal these have mounted further after the tax rises came into effect in April.
Tough times: Pret A Manger is set to join the rest of the High Street in counting the cost of Rachel Reeves’ tax raid
It means Pret will join a growing chorus of High Street firms warning that Reeves’ tax raid will force them to cut jobs and shut shops while stubborn inflation hits spending, denting sales.
There are also growing fears that the timing of the next Budget on November 26 will hit consumer sentiment ahead of the crucial ‘golden quarter’ of retail spending in the run-up to Christmas.
Last week Alex Baldock, head of electronics chain Currys, warned the sector’s role as the ‘engine room of the economy’ was under threat from tax rises. A particular gripe is business rates, a property tax that bricks-and-mortar shops have long complained disadvantages them over online rivals.
On Wednesday, the bosses of a dozen of Britain’s best-known store chains made clear to the Chancellor that her reforms to the property tax risk piling more pain on the industry.
The talks came as one retail executive described Reeves as ‘the face of doom’ after hitting the sector with crippling tax hikes.
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