Pret Manger marketing chief resigns

Pret Manger marketing director Charlotte Fuller has resigned from the upmarket fast-food chain after 18 months, with no job to go to.

Fuller joined the company from Leo Burnett, where she had been a board account director for four years. She will stay with the company until the new year, but has not decided where she wants to go.

She says:”I will take a short break and I’ve got a couple of things in the pipeline. I’ll be staying with the company until January. I think what is needed for this job is someone with a broader base of commercial experience. It hasn’t been an easy decision to make.”

The Pret Manger chain, which carries the tag line “passionate about food”, started as one shop in London’s Victoria Street 12 years ago and now has 73 stores, predominantly in the capital.

It was the brainchild of ex-property surveyors Sinclair Beecham and Julian Metcalfe, who saw a gap in the market for high-quality fast-food. Fuller has been instrumental in changing the strategic focus of the business, developing its provincial operation. It now has outlets in Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.

Andrew Rolfe, formerly chief executive of Booker Foodservices, joined Pret Manger as chief executive in September.