The Julian Metcalfe interview: Charisma, grit, and “that feeling of harmony”

The world has changed vastly since Julian Metcalfe co-founded sandwich business Pret a Manger (aka Pret) with a single branch in London, 1986. Few had a phone in their pocket back then. Smartphones still weren’t common when Metcalfe launched Japanese food chain Itsu, in 1997 — or even by 2008, when he’d helped transform a generation of office workers’ lunch habits and sold Pret to private equity Bridgepoint for upwards of $670 million (£364 million).

The digital revolution had taken off when Metcalfe sold his final stake in Pret, as part of its £1.5 billion sale to German conglomerate JAB Holding Company in 2018. But Metcalfe, who has now navigated the food industry for almost 30 years, is adamant that much, too, has stayed the same. 

“Culture, innovation, being good to people. That’s how you grow a business,” the 65-year-old tycoon tells Big Think, sitting on a hot pink chair surrounded by blooming orchids in one of Itsu’s newest branches, on London’s Oxford Street. These orchids are one of his business commandments. Each of Itsu’s 80-plus branches hosts thousands of white and pink blooming plants: “Fake ones would be cheaper,” Metcalfe concedes, “but real flowers are proper.”

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Driven in large part by its worldwide grocery business — which is growing at twice the rate of its restaurants — Itsu’s turnover increased 17% to around $230 million (£187) million last year. The US launch is planned “within one to five years.” 

Big Think’s conversation with Metcalfe covers his leadership style, inspiration, approach to work culture, and more.

Big Think: The hospitality and restaurant industry is littered with failures — how have you beaten the odds? 

Metcalfe: People often expect anyone who’s built a business to have had some weird lightbulb going off. It doesn’t work like that. My personal success so far has been driven by tenacity, the ability to embrace failure and the knowledge that I’m not very good at a lot of things, so I need to surround myself with people who have greater abilities than I do. 

I’ve always loved food. As a kid, I went to Paris on the ferry and saw the way they ate there — so different to London. It inspired me to think, “maybe one day I can do something here.” My first job was in commercial property, working with shops all over England to put them into new locations. That taught me about retailing. Then I put it all together. I was doing 120-hour weeks in Pret’s early days, unpaid for the first year. You have to make sacrifices. What you thought was going to work out often doesn’t.

Big Think: You’ve been at Itsu for 27 years and ran Pret before that. How do you stay inspired?

Metcalfe: I’m inspired by watching the people that I work with. At Itsu we take on a lot of young people who don’t have experience but have a spark, and grit to push themselves. Last week, a few of us flew to Japan, with a young food developer in her first job. She’d never been to Japan, but was running meetings for 14 people, taking control of the room for four days straight — she had so much charisma and care. That inspired me.

What keeps me going is my fundamental character flaw of not being able to sit with a book and just be happy. I’m always trying to achieve stuff. Not a single day goes by without me trying to learn how to be better and more accountable to people. Twice a year, I go to my local bookshop and buy ten books about leadership. I like Simon Sinek on “purpose” — if you don’t have real purpose, and you can’t connect that purpose with your product and with everyone working in your organization, then it’s pointless. I feel a big responsibility to try to guide people, so  I carry on learning.

Big Think: Do you seek out other leaders to offload and discuss that sense of responsibility? 

Metcalfe: No. I used to have two shrinks — a corporate and a personal one — but I don’t anymore: I bored them both to tears. It’s a good idea though. Trying to lead hundreds of people is complex. The more advice you can get, the better. I worry about everything — everything that could go wrong this week or next, any let-down customer, staff who were expecting one thing and got another; never-ending worries. But that’s how you make it work: you’ve got to care. When a customer messaged me about a bad experience at 7.15pm on Sunday night, I wrote back 15 minutes later. It’s setting a good example. It’s not a burden but a pleasure.

Big Think: Itsu is growing fast across Europe — but its US expansion was stymied by the pandemic. Will it return to the US?

Metcalfe: Our plan is to have three or four Itsu restaurants in New York in the next few years, and go big on grocery in the US. One of the problems we had taking Pret to the US was its lack of customization. But Itsu makes all the hot food to order, so people can choose their own options. It might take three minutes, but that’s OK nowadays. In the early days at Pret, people had nothing to do for those three minutes, and grew frustrated staring at the floor. Today it’s a different world — everyone’s happy to wait three minutes surfing their phone or social media. Some people actually enjoy being asked to wait. 

Big Think: At both Pret and Itsu you’ve been backed by private equity — what kind of business models do you most admire? 

Metcalfe: Long-term thinking is vital in business. I feel lucky to be in charge of Itsu’s destiny, not beholden to short-term share results or ruthless investors. [Metcalfe and management own 70% of the company; asset group Bridgepoint has a 30% stake]. If I want to take a 10-year view to becoming absolutely great, that’s what I’ll do. Most businesses are judged on too short-term a basis: you can’t get healthy in three months, but that’s what some investors demand. I admire some of the big, family-run firms in Germany which are run over many generations. It’s not about the next quarter: There’s a compelling reason to invest enormously in people and infrastructure to keep their product great.

Many renowned businesses lost money for many years before they became profitable. Things don’t happen overnight. Yet in food particularly, with trends, and social media, there’s an urgency in the air which can be detrimental to running a good business.

Big Think: You recently hired your former Pret CEO Clive Schlee to the same role at Itsu. What’s your view on the founder timeline — how do you know when it’s time to move on?

Metcalfe: After ten years, you’ve got to start giving away responsibility and accountability, until you realize you could go away for a year and no one would notice. It’s like watching your teenager grow up: you can help, but at a certain point, they move on, and even though it can be painful watching them — or your business — trip up, you have to. 

I feel proud when I look up Pret: I read in the newspaper it’s just opened restaurants in Mumbai. That’s amazing. Who would have thought you’d buy Pret sandwiches in India? It’s wonderful to see an idea you had in your head blossoming around the world. Your kid’s grown up.

Big Think: Your valuation of a good business clearly isn’t purely down to profit; what are your metrics for personal success?

Metcalfe: I judge myself by my state of mind, not the number of products I’ve sold or money made. I judge my success based on how often that feeling of harmony, amongst family, friends, people I work with, and customers, is there. When it isn’t, what’s going wrong? What can I learn from that?

Thinking about the many risks I’ve taken which have turned out to be wonderful — and how successful we’ve been on a project that, two years ago, looked crazy — gives me joy. I’m a part of something that needed courage, and it worked out: that’s success, for me.