How retail changed my life: Pano Christou – from flipping burgers to running Pret

His predecessor, Clive Schlee, usually had the last word on such occasions, but last November Christou instead offered that opportunity to one of his young employees, Isaac Alleyne.

The then-16-year-old had been inspired to join Pret by Christou himself, following a talk he had given to Year 11 students at his former school, Ernest Bevin in Tooting, London.

After leaving school, Alleyne joined Pret’s apprenticeship programme at one of its stores in Wandsworth and soon set about sharing his bold ambitions to follow in Christou’s footsteps and become Pret’s next CEO.

Word soon reached Christou, who invited Alleyne to share his story with hundreds of Pret colleagues. The teenager left them all with a powerful message.

“Kids from our area don’t grow up to be CEOs,” Alleyne said.

“A lot of them join gangs or fall into bad crimes. Opportunities are extremely limited. After I’d listened to Pano speaking, I thought: ‘If he can do it, so can I’.”

Christou wants to change the perception that youngsters from certain walks of life can’t reach the top.

He believes his own career journey has put him “in a position where I can make a difference” for youngsters like Alleyne from underprivileged backgrounds.

It also compelled him to tell his own story to Retail Week as part of our No Limits social mobility campaign in the hope he can inspire others, like Alleyne, to forge successful careers for themselves in the retail and hospitality sectors.

Humble beginnings

That story is one with very humble beginnings. Christou grew up in south London and recalls how his parents “at times had two jobs to try to make ends meet”.

His father, half-Italian, half-Greek Cypriot, was a minicab driver. His Greek Cypriot mother worked in a hospital before becoming a financial adviser at Woolwich building society. Christou’s first job as a teenager was delivering minicab cards through letterboxes to help out his dad.

“We didn’t have lots of cash to invest in things, but I wanted to have nice things in life and I knew I needed to get out and try to earn that for myself,” Christou explains.

“In my teenage years, initially it was just doing anything to work and earn some money, and then after that figure out what I would enjoy and be passionate about.”

While studying for a BTEC in business and finance at Kingston College, 16-year-old Christou took a part-time role at McDonald’s. He would regularly work evening shifts until midnight on Fridays, before returning the next morning for the 9am until 5pm Saturday shift.

His first big opportunity came suddenly at the age of 17 when he was offered a place on a training course to become a supervisor – a McDonald’s colleague had been taken off the course at the last minute after being “fired for giving away food”, Christou recalls.

Rather than go to university, he enrolled on the fast food giant’s management training programme, but it wasn’t until the age of 19 that Christou realised retail and hospitality was the industry in which he wanted to build a career in the longer term.

He chuckles as he remembers how he left McDonald’s to join NatWest bank. He spent his first morning out the back of the branch filing paperwork and chose not to return after his lunch break. Instead, he went to McDonald’s and said: “I need my job back”.

By the age of 22, Christou had joined Pret as an assistant manager. Just as it was at McDonald’s, his hard work and determination was rewarded with opportunities and promotions.

He served as a store manager for four years, before moving into “project work”, helping Pret expand its business into major cities such as Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

He was soon made an area manager for London, then regional operations director, national operations director and UK managing director.

Christou was named chief operating officer of the Pret group in January 2019 and took over from Schlee as chief executive just nine months later.

Working hard and getting rewarded

He regularly uses the example of his rapid rise through the ranks to inspire others joining the business.

“In all of those promotions, I was kind of the young kid who hadn’t been involved for that long. I’d never really spent time thinking too much about the next role; I just wanted to do my job to the best of my ability,” Christou says.

“But I quickly started to learn that doing your job to the best of your ability means people do notice you and give you opportunities.

“Unfortunately, I think retail and hospitality are quite unique in that way. What I realised at Pret and McDonald’s was that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like – if you work hard and you make a difference, people will notice you. That’s wonderful.

“I say that to people who join Pret and it’s something I’m very keen to promote and to support. We have more than 130 different nationalities at Pret; we are very proud of things like our gender pay gap. 50% of my leadership team are female, 50% are male, so we have a very diverse mix of people.

“The great thing for me is that I am now in a position where I can make a difference and influence that.”

Examples like Alleyne prove that Christou’s influence is having a tangible impact on social mobility within Pret.

Indeed, Alleyne was just one of seven pupils from Christou’s former school who joined the coffee chain following that talk he gave.

“The only thing that limits you in hospitality and retail is you. I’m fortunate to be in an industry that gives people opportunities”

Pano Christou, Pret a Manger

“I just hope I can be a role model for people and show them that you can do something quite magical,” Christou says.

“The only thing that limits you in hospitality and retail is you. There are other organisations or industries that would stipulate you have to have a degree before you step up, but I’m fortunate to be in an industry that gives people opportunities.

“At this time right now, during the pandemic, unfortunately the disparity between the poor and the rich is widening. We have to do something about that.”

It is a powerful message – and one Christou hopes other leaders will heed going into 2021.