Julian Metcalfe — British entrepreneur who co-founded Pret a Manger (sold for around 2 billion) and founded the Japanese-inspired healthy food chain Itsu.
The gist
Julian Metcalfe joins Stephen Bartlett to trace how a difficult childhood, including his mother's suicide when he was seven and a distant father, shaped his obsessive drive and complex character. He argues that transparency, trust, affection and long-term thinking, rather than numbers or short-term ambition, are what truly build great companies. He recounts founding Pret a Manger in 1986 with a college friend, the cultural systems he invented like staff voting on new hires and giving food away, and how he later built Itsu as a fully private company to protect his vision. The conversation also covers losing control of Pret through private equity and a brief McDonald's stake, the tragic sesame allergy death that led to Natasha's Law, and discovering at 45 that he had a 19-year-old daughter, Celeste, who now works with him. Throughout, Metcalfe champions failure, risk-taking and affordable nutritious food as his life's mission.
Big reveals
- Julian's mother committed suicide on Boxing Day when he was seven, leaving him with a deep, lasting loneliness.
- He pledged to show his entire team all company financials every quarter and revealed he has never taken a pound out of the business.
- He insists Pret's success was largely naive and unplanned, just hundreds of failures punctuated by moments of magic and bravery.
- After his co-founder retired with no paperwork between them, private equity and briefly McDonald's (a 30% stake) entered, changing the business.
- He built Itsu as a 100% private company specifically so he could never again be a minority owner forced to abandon his vision.
- At about 45 he discovered he had a 19-year-old daughter, Celeste, who now sits on the Itsu board and led its brand for years.
- The sesame allergy death of a young girl who bought a Pret baguette led to Natasha's Law, mandating far more food labeling in the UK.
Things worth remembering
- From the first Itsu store, the company grew to around 76 locations.
- Julian says he felt completely unlovable for decades and to this day does not call his parents mum and dad.
- Itsu's menu is roughly 40% plant-based and most items are under 400-500 calories, aimed at affordable nutritious food for about seven pounds.
- At Pret, current store staff voted yes or no on a napkin to decide whether a job candidate was hired.
- Pret had 'buddy days' where staff could give away five to ten products a day to any customer to build long-term loyalty.
- A till button called 'the joy of Pret' tracked which stores weren't giving enough free items away.
- Pret never let sandwiches carry over to the next day and drove unsold food in a van to homeless people even when making no profit.
- Itsu holds a five-star health and safety record across every site, which Julian says no one else has achieved.
- Julian gave his college-friend co-founder half the company to leave his job and join him.
- Raw fish has fallen from about 90% of Itsu's sales to roughly 30-50% as the menu has been reinvented three times.