Decisions That Made Me: Julian Metcalfe (Itsu and Pret A Manger)
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An early passion for the high street meant Julian Metcalfe was determined to get into retail from the get-go. He and his partner Sinclair Beecham founded Pret A Manger when he was just 26. In 2008 Pret was sold to a private equity firm, and Julian no longer had a say in the company’s future. Now Julian is in charge of Itsu, an Asian-inspired fast-food chain. The food entrepreneur talks to Evan Davis about how he is determined not to lose his decision-making role this time around.
Production team: Producer: Eleanor Harrison-Dengate Editor: Matt Willis Sound: John Scott Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.3 | Imagine you've come up with a business idea. |
| 0:07.3 | You manage to find a partner, you create a brand together, you build it up, you find suppliers and shop fronts, and eventually it becomes successful, turning over millions of dollars every year. |
| 0:18.4 | And then you give up control. |
| 0:21.8 | We'll take the example of the co-founders of WhatsApp, Brian Ackton and Jan Coombe. |
| 0:26.7 | That's exactly what happened in their case. |
| 0:29.3 | WhatsApp was sold to Facebook, with Coombe negotiating a seat on Facebook's board. |
| 0:35.1 | When it was bought, Coom had promised WhatsApp users that the brands focus on |
| 0:39.4 | user privacy and no advertising, none of that would be compromised. But Facebook, of course, |
| 0:45.2 | was under pressure to make money out of the free encrypted messaging service and began to chip away |
| 0:51.2 | at some of WhatsApp's values. It eventually meant that both Acton and Coombe left Facebook. |
| 0:58.2 | They relinquished their stake in a company that spent almost a decade working on. |
| 1:03.0 | Well, giving up control of your business is never an easy decision. |
| 1:07.5 | On the one hand, it might seem like the chance to bring in new partners, share the load, |
| 1:11.6 | grow the company. On the other hand, it can mean losing your ability to make the final call |
| 1:17.3 | on the direction of the business. I'm Evan Davis, and in this episode of the decisions that made me, |
| 1:23.0 | a series of interviews with business leaders from the team behind the bottom line, I'm going to hear |
| 1:27.8 | about one such story. Julian Metcalf is the founder of Itzu, an Asian-inspired fast food chain, |
| 1:35.2 | and also the co-founder of Pretta Manger, the popular sandwich and coffee chain. There was a point |
| 1:42.0 | when Julian made the decision to give up majority ownership in Pratt. |
| 1:46.7 | As a consequence, he's decided to do the opposite with Itzu and hold on to his stake. And in this |
| 1:52.9 | episode, we find out why. Julian, thank you for talking to us today. What did you do when you |
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