Sinclair Beecham

Sinclair Beecham: speaker on food and customer service and founder of Pret A Manger.

Sinclair Beecham graduated from the Polytechnic of Central London in 1983 after studying Urban Estate Management, where he met Julian Metcalfe. He then joined Crest Estates, a property developer as development and marketing executive. He then teamed up with his partner Julian Metcalfe to establish Pret A Manger.

In 2002 McDonald’s reached an agreement to acquire a minority interest in Pret A Manger. Founders Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham said, “Since opening the first Pret A Manger in 1986, we have been obsessed with selling good natural food to people who are in a rush at lunchtime. After 14 years, we are fortunate to have thousands of loyal customers in the UK and many visitors who have urged us to open Pret A Manger abroad. But to do this, we need a huge amount of support. Every new country will be an enormous challenge.” In 2008 Pret was sold to Bridgepoint with the Pret management team retaining a thirty-three percent stake.

In 2009 Sinclair Beecham sold his remaining stake in Pret A Manger.

He was a non executive Director of Virgin Active. In 2005 it was sold back to Virgin Group at an enterprise value of approx £350 million with 20 healthclubs in the UK, eight in Italy, six in Spain and seventy-seven in South Africa. He resigned from the company after the sale. He was also a non-executive director of Molton Brown which was sold to Kao for approx £170 million. He resigned from the company after the sale.

Sinclair Beecham has now moved into the hotel business. He is the Founder and Chairman of WS Hotel Ltd opening the Hoxton, a 205-bed hotel in which he invested £18 million in Shoreditch, East London.

It was announced in 2021 that Sinclair Beecham is to be part of a new funding deal along with Luxembourg-based JAB Holdings to enable Pret to open two hundred new UK outlets by 2023 and to further expand in five new, as yet undisclosed, markets.

Pret A Manger is recognised as a leader in customer service and staff motivation and Sinclair Beecham is a powerful speaker on the factors behind the success of all his business ventures. Sinclair donates his speaking fees to charity. Contact Sinclair Beecham via a Specialist Speakers agent for both virtual and in-person Q&A speaking and all other kinds of engagements.