Pret A Manger global director of data and insight Matt Lovell is leaving the business after three and a half years as part of what is understood to be a major shake-up of its data operations.
Lovell joined the company in May 2021 and has been responsible for building a global data team from scratch, stretching from data engineering and data protection to analytics, business information and data science.
He has also overhauled the company’s operations by ditching legacy systems in favour of an integrated tech stack including Snowflake, Github, and PowerBI plus a number of digital analytics and martech solutions.
Meanwhile, Lovell has created an end-to-end view of Pret’s customer base, connecting transactional data alongside customer satisfaction to drive customer lifetime value and frequency.
Pret has yet to confirm whether the global director of data and insight role will be absorbed into another senior executive’s responsibilites.
Prior to Pret, Lovell was data, anayltics and insight director at Eurostar, building a central data team, where he established the train firm’s data strategy and embedded data across the business.
Having started his career at Arena Media, Lovell has also held top data and insight roles at Jack Wills, Thomas Cook and Ascential.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: “I’m sad to announce that after almost three and a half years, my time at Pret has come to an end.
“I want to say a massive thank you to the amazing team I’m leaving behind. It’s been a massive privilege to establish such a strong group of brilliant data practitioners. I’m so proud of what you all continue to achieve and I know that I leave Pret’s data in safe hands and hope you continue to show the business the value it can add.”
He concluded: “As such, for now, it’s time to take a break and enjoy spending lots of quality time with my kids and make the most of the summer sun with the family.”
The move comes just weeks after the coffee and sandwich chain announced that from September it will be axing its Club Pret subscription scheme, which gives customers five barista-made drinks a day for £30 a month.
The coffee chain broke the news in an email to Club Pret subscribers in which it told customers it was “time to rethink how it works”, with the current deal having been running for the last four years.
But the scheme proved more popular than bosses had ever imagined; by April 2023, according to the company’s own figures, the subscription scheme was being used 1.25 million times per week.
The shake-up triggered a major backlash from customers but Pret remains positive about its future and has claimed the business is in good health and has recovered well since the pandemic.
In July last year, Pret returned to profitability for the first time since 2018, with revenue reaching £790m. In the first half of 2023 sales reached £429m, up 20% from 2022.
In 2021, the company appointed VCCP as its first global integrated communications agency, with a growing focus on digital communications and omnichannel campaigning.
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