Pret ties up with Chilly's to launch new reusable bottles
It has also announced the commencement of its deposit return scheme trial in Brighton.
Pret A Manger has collaborated with Chilly’s to create a new range of reusable bottles to help customers reduce the number of plastic bottles they use. The bottles will be available in a selection of Pret shops and feature three exclusive Pret designs.
Pret has been encouraging customers to reduce the number of plastic bottles they use since last October, when the company began adding free filtered water stations to shops. Pret CEO Clive Schlee blogged about it at the time when he asked, “What if Pret stopped selling plastic water bottles?”. James and Tim, founders of Chilly’s, saw Clive’s blog post and emailed him asking if he would be interested in collaborating with Chilly’s to make reusable bottles for customers. Clive immediately said yes.
The reusable bottles feature three exclusive Pret designs: the apple robot, the cucumber snake and the watermelon lollies. The 500ml bottles are BPA-free and keep drinks cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 hours.
Pret CEO Clive Schlee said, “Plastic bottles are a problem. We all feel it even before we hear the shocking statistics about millions of tonnes of plastic ending up in our oceans each year. I’m thrilled that we’ve partnered with Chilly’s to create a range of reusable bottles and I hope our customers love the designs as much as we do.”
James and Tim, founders of Chilly’s, said, “We’re on a mission to accelerate the adoption and everyday use of reusable products. We aim to do this through creating high performing bottles that can be used everywhere, helping customers to reduce their reliance on single-use plastics.”
Customers and passers-by are able to refill any reusable bottles for free using Pret’s filtered water stations that are available in 66 shops in London, Manchester, Brighton, Bath, Cambridge, Chichester, Bournemouth, Surrey, Leicester, Liverpool, Uxbridge, Kent, Reading, Glasgow and Edinburgh. To see a full list of Pret shops that have a filtered water station, please visit https://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/pret-x-chillys.
To help increase recycling rates, the UK’s first plastic bottle deposit return scheme trial begins this week in three Brighton shops. This will see Pret accept and recycle any plastic bottles taken into Pret shops in Brighton; a 10p deposit will be returned when Pret-branded plastic bottles are given back. The two-month trial began on the 10th of April and feedback has been positive so far. 15% of Pret’s plastic bottles were returned on the first day.
The Pret x Chilly’s reusable bottles will be available in 14 shops in London, Brighton and Manchester, and they will be introduced to more shops later on in the year. £20 per bottle.
