Panera Bread Company

The Panera Bread began in 1981, as Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. Louis Kane and Ron Shaich founded it. The company was mainly based along the East coast of the United States, and internationally in the 1980s though the 1990s, and became a major player in the bakery-café industry.

By 1997, the concepts name was changed to Panera Bread. It was clear that Panera Bread had the potential to become one of the leading brands in its industry. Panera designs each bakery-café to provide a distinctive environment, in many cases using fixtures and materials, complementary to the neighborhood location of the bakery-café to engage customers. Many locations incorporate the warmth of a fireplace, cozy seating areas, and groupings in which one can facilitate and utilize as a gathering spot. The design visually reinforces the distinctive difference between Panera’s bakery-cafés and other bakery cafés.

Many of Panera’s bakery-cafes also feature outdoor café seating, and free Internet access through a managed Wi-Fi network. The average construction, equipment, furniture, and fixtures, and signage cost for the 79 Panera Company-owned bakery cafés opened in 2007. It was approximately $1.0 million per bakery-café (Panera Bread Company 2007, Form 10k). The

Company-owned bakery-cafes opened in 2007, were approximately $1.0 million per bakery-café.

In May 1999, all of Au Bon Pain Co., Inc’s business units were sold. With the exception of Panera Bread, the company was renamed. Since those transactions were completed, the company’s stock had grown $1 billion in shareholder value that had been created. Today, there is 1185 Panera Bread ® Co. ® in states delivering fresh, authentic artisan bread on a national scale (www.panera.com).

PANERA’S PROFIT TRENDS

Panera said it expects its new grilled breakfast sandwiches and other factors will help withstand, but not overcome, weakness in the U.S economy, which crimples consumer spending.

Despite inflation in wheat, oil, and other commodity...