Pret A Manger has become the latest company to adopt contactless payment systems. The high-street sandwich chain is to launch the integrated system following a successful seven store trial in London.

The system allows customers to pay for items totalling £10 or less by swiping their card across a contactless reader, and has been designed to save customers time and cut queues. It will be rolled out across Pret’s remaining 171 stores and the process is set to be complete by April 2009.

Other companies who have recently made the move to contactless payments include Coffee Republic and EAT.

Simon Hargraves, director of food and communications at Pret A Manger, said the system would give its customers “a quicker method of payment and an improved customer experience”.

The contactless technology, developed by Commidea, is now issued as standard on all Barclaycard Platinum cards and is being rolled out across more of Barclaycard’s card products.