Pret A Manger
Case study

Challenge

• Ahead of opening shops in new markets, Pret localise all their employee training, operation manuals, equipment user guides and marketing materials; as well as country-specific website content, menus, allergen notices and eLearning courses – with over 100 files per project.
• Great emphasis is placed on employee recruitment, training and mentoring, ensuring every person within the company knows their role, how to safely use their equipment, as well as the goals and expectations within the company.
• Files for translation vary from guides (interview, customer service, cleaning, handwashing, food labelling, etc.), job descriptions, recipes, productivity trackers, how to cards, posters, signs, safety rules/ manuals, journals to presentation slides etc.
• Pret require very quick turnarounds, as there is limited movement/flexibility on shop openings; therefore, it is imperative timelines are met.
• Volumes of 100+ documents equating to 350,000+ words.
• Content provided was a mixture of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InDesign and Adobe Illustrator files.

Approach / Solution

• In-person client meetings were scheduled to discuss timelines and prioritisation of files. Agreement on deadlines, with clearly defined milestones, and approach to be taken was outlined.
• Creation of glossaries upfront, to capture all key terminology.
• A small sample of the content was prepared for Pret in-country review and feedback before translation start.
• Agreement on the key translation terminology and style/tone used within the translations from the outset, reducing linguistic change requests at later stages.
• A large dedicated team of selected linguists allowed for splitting of the work to expedite timings.
• A final review by Pret’s team was carried out prior to typesetting and formatting content into the final outputs.
• File delivery on a rolling basis, so reviewers followed by Desktop Publishers could make a start on typesetting whilst other files were still undergoing translation.
• An additional Linguistic sign-off stage was applied, where the senior linguist undertook a final review of all content in context to make sure everything had been formatted correctly, nothing was cut-off, missing or incorrect.
• A translation memory was created throughout the translation process to aid with future translations and to ensure consistency across all documents.
• Along with a dedicated team of linguists, Pret were assigned a dedicated Project and Account Management team at Global Lingo, who were always available  for project questions or additional requests.

Benefit

• Pret received fully localised print-ready materials, by their requested deadlines.
• PDF versions and artwork packages were provided alongside this, so that they could make any final tweaks if they wished on their side.
• Global Lingo have by now helped Pret with shop openings in the Netherlands (Dutch), Denmark (Danish), Germany (German) and the United Arab Emirates (Arabic).
• The collaboration has also expanded into the localisation of eLearning training courses for distribution amongst French, Spanish and German-speaking employees.