Pret a Manger has said it notched up more than £1bn in global sales for the first time last year as the UK sandwich chain ramped up its expansion overseas.

Despite a recent furore over axing its popular subscription service, customers across the globe flocked to the company.

Pret said £1 in every £4 spent at its outlets is now outside the UK after it opened a record 81 new shops in 2023, more than half of those in overseas markets such as Canada, India, Greece and Spain. Pret also made significant gains in the US, where it opened a string of new sites on the east coast.

The chain reported worldwide system sales of £1.1bn, up 22%, in 2023, which helped to drive a 12% rise in underlying profits to £166m and led the group to meet its target to double the size of the business three years early.

In July, the chain angered customers by axing its Club Pret subscription service, almost four years after the deal was launched in the UK. The £360-a-year subscription perk, including 20% off its food offering, was ditched in favour of 50% off up to five coffees a day, at a cost of £10 a month.

At the same time, Pret revealed that the price of its signature 100% organic arabica filter coffee would drop to 99p, and its all-butter croissant would fall to £1.99. Pret said it had seen sales of its cheaper, filter coffee surge by 60% during August when compared with June after the changes.

Despite breaking the £1bn mark, Pret said sales growth had more than halved to 10% in more recent figures for the first half of 2024.

Pret, which is owned by the German conglomerate JAB Holding, said comparable same-store sales growth also fell to 3% in the six months to 30 June, against the 15% recorded over last year.

Pret’s chief executive, Pano Christou, said in a statement: “We set ourselves some tough targets to get Pret going again after the pandemic, and we have delivered.

“The fact that £1 in every £4 is now spent outside the UK is both an achievement and an opportunity for our business. It shows how big the appetite is from customers all over the world for Pret’s menu.”