Pret Itsu founder faces Twitter backlash after lockdown comments

Coronavirus

29 Oct

Julian Metcalfe, the founder of Pret and Itsu, has hit out at a second UK coronavirus lockdown.

Another one would be impossible, he told The Daily Mail, adding: “Society will not recover if we do it again to save a few thousand lives of very old or vulnerable people.”

He added: “The young people of this country will be paying for this for the next 20 to 30 years. It's terrible what's happening. Just because France does this with its socialist government, doesn't mean we have to.”

This, somewhat unsurprisingly, went down like a lead balloon in the Twitterverse.

Don’t fret, no regret, we can’t have debt, granddad’s death will save Pret. pic.twitter.com/ZDCyfhaPfH
— Tim Walker (@ThatTimWalker) October 29, 2020

I am appalled by the comments of Julian Metcalf of Pret Manager as reported on the front page of the Daily Mail - since when were the elderly and vulnerable of this country to be thought of as nothing but collateral damage? - when did we stop caring about older people? pic.twitter.com/7VJ7CGVzLH
— HistoryandHeritageYorkshire (@GenealogyBeech) October 29, 2020

This seems as good a day as any to steal @xtophercook's best ever tweet, and say again:

"Dulce et decorum est pro Pret mori" pic.twitter.com/c5H5G7WlA2
— Matthew Thompson (@mattuthompson) October 29, 2020

The founder of Pret a Manger talking about losing a few thousand lives like Johnson and Johnson in Die Hard happy with a quarter of the hostages dying pic.twitter.com/Fnbf4NRn6V
— Toby Earle (@TobyonTV) October 29, 2020

Julian Metcalfe sold his stake in Pret in 2018 if I were Pret I would be doing a press release... anyway here’s his background if you want to hate some more pic.twitter.com/Zua663F1Oh
— mARGHcus (@marcusjdl) October 29, 2020

Last word to Pret, who posted the following message on its social media channels this morning.

“We are aware of Julian Metcalfe’s comments this morning, but he has not run the business for over ten years and we do not agree with his opinion. We at Pret strongly believe we must take steps to stop the spread of the virus and tackle the new wave of infections.”