{"id":204100,"date":"2026-05-08T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/?p=204100"},"modified":"2026-05-08T09:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:08:21","slug":"pret-hires-lidl-supply-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/05\/pret-hires-lidl-supply-chain\/","title":{"rendered":"Pret hires former Lidl buying boss to lead supply chain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pret A Manger has appointed former Lidl GB buying chief Stefan Porter to the newly created role of Chief Supply Chain Officer as the food-to-go chain accelerates its global growth plans.<\/p>\n

Porter joins Pret from Azzurri Group , owner of brands including ASK Italian, Zizzi and Coco di Mama, where he served as group commercial director overseeing purchasing, supply chain, ESG, quality and technical operations.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, he spent eight years at Lidl GB, most recently as senior buying director, leading multiple buying divisions and managing strategic supplier relationships within the discounter\u2019s UK business.<\/p>\n

In his new position, it is understood Porter will oversee Pret\u2019s supply chain, logistics, buying, technical and sustainability functions globally, as well as helping drive the food-to-go giant’s<\/a> global ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\t\t

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“I\u2019m excited to welcome Stefan to Pret,” said Pret CEO Pan Christou.<\/p>\n

“With his strong commitment to food quality, combined with his deep industry expertise and commercially minded approach, I believe he will be a great asset to us as we continue to grow the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter added that he was ” excited to be joining the Pret team and supporting their ambitious plans.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve long been a customer and fan of Pret\u2019s freshly made food and coffee and I look forward to bringing my skills, passion and experience to the business at this period of growth.”<\/p>\n

The appointment comes as Pret continues to expand across travel hubs, franchised locations and new store formats, including its recently launched first-ever drive-thru site in Warrington<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette\u2018s free daily email newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pret A Manger has appointed former Lidl GB buying chief Stefan Porter to the newly created role of Chief Supply Chain Officer as the food-to-go chain accelerates its global growth plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":204101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2646,2657,2696],"tags":[7696,59139],"class_list":["post-204100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appointments","category-grocery","category-supply-chain","tag-pret","tag-stefan-porter"],"comment_count":0,"featured_video":false,"extra_images":false,"featured_youtube_video_url":"","featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Stefan-Porter-Headshot.jpeg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Stefan-Porter-Headshot-300x300.jpeg","views":"1,000","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204128,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204100\/revisions\/204128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}