Pret a Manger’s Southern California retreat is the latest example of how difficult it has become for restaurant chains to translate success in one major U.S. market into another. In Los Angeles, the U.K.-founded sandwich and salad brand that once outlined an aggressive regional growth plan now appears to have almost entirely withdrawn, despite opening several high-profile stores over the last two years.
Pret’s pullback came fast after a plan for roughly 40 Southern California stores
Pret a Manger announced in 2022 that it planned to expand heavily in Southern California through a franchise arrangement with Dallas Holdings, with a goal of roughly 40 locations in the region, according to a company news release cited by SFGATE. That expansion plan was framed as part of a broader effort to double the size of the business within five years.
The rollout began in visible, high-traffic Los Angeles locations. SFGATE reported that Pret’s first Southern California shop opened in Westwood in 2024, near UCLA, followed by locations in Studio City, at Los Angeles International Airport and inside Westfield Century City. Those sites placed the brand in office, tourism and student-heavy areas that typically suit a grab-and-go format.
By Aug. 20, 2026, that buildout had effectively collapsed. SFGATE reported that only the LAX location in the Tom Bradley International Terminal remained open, while the Westwood and Westfield Century City stores had closed by early April and the Studio City location had already gone dark earlier. Pret and Dallas Holdings did not respond to SFGATE before publication, and the company has not publicly outlined a revised Southern California development target.
What is confirmed in Southern California, and what the company has not disclosed
What is publicly confirmed is narrow but significant: the chain’s known remaining Southern California location is at LAX, and that unit is operated by airport concessions company ASUR Airports rather than Dallas Holdings, according to SFGATE. That distinction matters because it suggests the surviving store is outside the same operating structure used for Pret’s street-level Los Angeles expansion.
The confirmed closures identified in published reporting are in Westwood, Century City and Studio City. Westwood is in Los Angeles’ Westside near UCLA, Century City is one of the region’s biggest mixed-use retail and office hubs, and Studio City is a major San Fernando Valley commercial corridor. Together, those neighborhoods gave Pret exposure to commuters, shoppers and students, the customer base its model typically depends on.
The company has not released a comprehensive list of affected Southern California locations or closure dates for every store. Public reporting also does not establish whether any additional Pret sites opened and closed outside those named neighborhoods, or whether any new franchise locations remain in development. As of SFGATE’s Aug. 20 report, the observable footprint had shrunk to one airport outpost.
The likely reasons are competition, weak lunch traffic and a tougher post-pandemic market
Pret has not publicly given a definitive reason for the Southern California pullback. SFGATE reported that neither Pret nor Dallas Holdings responded to repeated requests for comment, leaving no formal company explanation on the record for why a widely promoted expansion lost momentum so quickly.
What is documented is the market context. SFGATE noted that Los Angeles already has established competitors in the same general lunch lane, including Mendocino Farms and Sweetgreen, along with other salad, wrap and sandwich operators. In that environment, Pret was not entering an underserved category; it was trying to win share in a crowded field where local and national brands were already entrenched.
The same report also pointed to a broader structural challenge: lunch and catering remain difficult segments for many restaurant operators because office work has not fully returned to pre-pandemic patterns. That matters for a chain built around weekday grab-and-go demand. In practical terms, Southern California customers should expect Pret to remain largely absent from neighborhood retail corridors for now, with the LAX store the only publicly identified survivor as of Aug. 20, 2026, while a former Westwood Pret is being replaced by Ghost Sando Shop, according to SFGATE.