Be good looking or failing that be nice to staff and it might just get you a free coffee at Pret A Manger.

The sandwich chain’s boss has revealed the secret to being given a gratis drink in one of his company’s shops.

Chief executive Clive Schlee told the Standard staff have the power to hand out free drinks to their favourite customers.

He said: “They will decide ‘I like the person on the bicycle’ or ‘I like the guy in that tie’ or ‘I fancy that girl or that boy’. It means 28 per cent of people have had something free. It’s a nice, different way of doing it.”

Pret has 288 outlets worldwide, 160 of them in London.