...Elizabeth Hartsig Panera Bread Company The success or failure of a company depends on how well the company can manage key environmental factors. Each and every company out there has a specific environment that will move it. Some of the factors can be prevented while others are completely out of control of the company. Panera Bread is one of the fastest growing chains in America today, there is only 5 states that do not have a Panera. A big key environmental force that created a great opportunity for Panera Bread was Technological and Competitive. Panera Bread offers an app in the Play store for Android and on ITunes for Apple, this app makes it super easy to order your food to go and pickup as soon as you get there with no line no waiting. A few more key factors that led to the growth of Panera Bread is the way they treat their customers. Customer service is a key factor that influences the consumers to keep coming back. Customers do not just pay for a meal but they pay for the entire experience. Excellent customer service skills and waitresses going above and beyond kept customers coming back. Another remarkable key factor was Panera Bread had the ability to respond quickly to shifting market conditions. Customers were constantly changing what they wanted, and restaurants needed to keep up with those changes (Dr. Desmarais, 2011). In order for a restaurant to be able to compete with rival companies it must have the ability to change. Panera Bread changed its menu to satisfy...
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...Analysis History Over the years Panera Bread has become a dominating force in the restaurant industry, from originating with the intention to be simply a bread company steered by the mission “A Loaf of bread in every arm” to emerging as a leader in the quick-casual business with 1,708 bakery cafes in 44 states and in Ontario, Canada. Today Panera Bread’s mission has evolved into “provide high quality products and exceptional service to our customers. We will conduct our business by reaffirming daily our commitment to: NEIGHBORHOOD … maintaining our position as THE neighborhood bakery in our markets. SERVICE … always exceed our customers' expectations ADDED VALUE … offer our customers healthy, natural, premium quality breads and specialty foods at a fair price. COMMUNITY … engages in a working partnership with civic and charitable activities. OPPORTUNITIES … associates will be given equal employment and advancement opportunities with our Company. ENTREPRENEURISM … empower our associates with a challenging and rewarding work environment that allows them to do their best work.” (Panera Bread, 2013). The company was founded in 1981, under the name Au Bon Pain, and has been led for 25 years by the CEO and President Ron Shaich. Its first locations opened up along the East Coast in malls and shopping centers and spreading out internationally in the 1990s. In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. extended its portfolio by purchasing Saint Louis Bread Company, a chain of 20 bakery cafes located...
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...Running head: PANERA BREAD CASE ANALYSIS Panera Bread Case Analysis LaToya Melvin Davenport University BUSN 520 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 3 LITERATURE REVIEW Synopsis of the Situation 4 Key Issues 4 Define the Problem & the Opportunity 6 Alternative Solutions 6 Selected Solution 7 Implementation/Recommendations 7 CONCLUSIONS 7 WORKS CITED 8 Abstract This case study focuses on the market analysis for the Panera Bread Company. The case will examine five components; the synopsis, key issues, problem and opportunity, alternative solutions, selected solution, and implementation/recommendations. Throughout the case, questions will arise as Panera faces challenges in the growth and the operation of the business that will include such issues as marketing, pricing and factors within its consumer base. Literature Review Synopsis Panera Bread is a company founded in 1982, named Au Bon Pain at that time by Louis Kane and Ron Shaich. Panera Bread goal was to offer the best quality product and to be nationally recognized by its bakery-café specialty. Panera Bread’s strategy is to make great bread and to make it broadly available, being the bread experts in the industry. They service consumers-on-the-go, who...
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...Panera Bread Case Study Paper August 16, 2013 Introduction Panera Bread Company got its start in 1981 known as Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. Since that time it has gone through several changes until it eventually became the Panera Bread Company in 1999. They have forged forward through the recession and a weak economy to become a well-respected restaurant known for its quality food. This review will take you through the beginnings of Panera Bread to where they are now. It will also cover their main competition and how they compare to each other, and the different charitable organizations that Panera sponsors. Founded by Louis Kane and Ron Shaich, Au Bon Pain Co was established in 1981. Their stores were mainly along the east coast of the United States and internationally where they prospered throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. “In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. purchased Saint Louis Bread Company, a chain of 20 bakery-cafes located in the St. Louis area” (Panera Bread, 2013). During that time the St. Louis Bread Company was in the process of renovating its bakery-cafes in the St. Louis area. Between 1993 and 1997 average unit volumes increased by 75% after completing a comprehensive re-staging of Saint Louis Bread Company. Eventually the name was changed to Panera Bread. Panera is a word that has roots in “breadbasket” in Latin. Panera Bread knew that they had the potential of becoming one of the leading brands in the nation. In order for Panera Bread to reach its potential...
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...11/22/11 Panera Bread Panera Bread is a rising company in the restaurant industry. Panera is a retail bakery-café that started in 1981 as Au Bon Pain Co., founded by Ronald Shaich. I have been an employee here for over four years, so I have a personal interest in how the company is doing. Panera was originally named Au Bon Pain Co. and later purchased the Saint Louis Bread Company. St. Louis was a chain of 20 bakery-cafés located in Missouri. The company changed their name to what it currently is. Panera has been having great success, since 1999 their stock has grown thirteen-fold and they have done over $1 billion in shareholder value. But that is not the only thing to expand. As of June 28, 2011 there are 1,493 bakery-cafés located in forty states and in Ontario Canada (Panera Bread). They are able to do this because Panera prides themselves on quick service, an inviting and welcoming atmosphere, and making connections with their customers. One thing they emphasize in training is to learn the customer’s name so everyone can be on a first name basis. One important macroeconomic indicator is real GDP. Real GDP is defined as the value of goods and services measured using a constant set of prices. This means it will measure the output valued at constant prices, or adjusted for level of prices. Real GDP can be calculated by dividing the Nominal GDP and GDP Deflator, which reflects what’s happening to the overall level of prices. When the real GDP is calculated for Panera in one...
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...Question 1 Panera Bread Company is a fast service, casual bakery-café that offers fresh-baked, quality breads and baked products as well as breakfast items, pastries, smoothies, made-to-order sandwiches, pasta, soups, salads, and café beverages. They pursue a broad differentiation strategy which seeks to differentiate the company’s product offering from rivals with superior attributes that will appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers. We believe Panera Bread Company approaches differentiation from the angels of unique taste and quality ingredients along with an aesthetically pleasing and inviting dinning environment. It was believed that the success of Panera Bread Company meant “being better than the guys across the street.” By developing a menu with diverse offerings, it enables Panera Bread Company to draw in customers from breakfast through the dinner hours each day. Because Panera Bread Company uses higher quality, fresh ingredients in their uniquely crafted menu items, they are able to command a higher price for its products than some of their rival competitors. Question 2 Internal strengths for Panera Bread Company: • Store design and ambiance. • Working with franchisees to open new locations; Superior product quality- artisan signature breads, made from four ingredients, as well as bagels, muffins, cookies, and other pastries, were baked fresh throughout the day at each café location. • Panera’s many honors and rewards. • My Panera Rewards that builds relationships...
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...Panera Bread Company is a national bakery-cafe with 1,504 locations across the US and Canada. This case study provides information regarding the past performance, current analysis, stock valuation, market evaluation, and industry comparison. In this analysis and case study, we hope you, the reader, will gain usable insight on Panera Bread and its value. We will give a recommendation to our readers according to our given information. Panera Bread is a chain of bakery-cafe quick service restaurants in the United States and Canada that sells breads, sandwiches, soups, salads, and other bakery items. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Panera bread was once originally known as the St. Louis Bread Company. In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co. purchased the Saint Louis Bread Company, which was founded by Ken Rosenthal. At the same time, the St. Louis Bread Company was renovating its 20 bakery-cafés in the St. Louis area. In May 1999, to expand Panera Bread into a national restaurant, Au Bon Pain Co. sold its other chains, including Au Bon Pain, which is now owned by Compass Group North America. Au Bon Pain Co. then renamed itself Panera Bread. The company operates and franchises 1,504 Panera Bread bakery-cafés in 40 states and 17 facilities that deliver fresh dough to the bakery-cafés every day. In its headquarters city of St. Louis, Panera Bread still operates under the name St. Louis Bread Company. The St. Louis Metropolitan area has over 100 locations. In 2005...
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...Panera Bread Company’s Vision and Mission Statement During 1999, Panera Bread sold the Au Bon restaurants and began focusing solely on the growth of the Panera Bread restaurants. As the company attempted to expand their operations across North America, their vision and mission statement became an even larger part of the operations. However, the statement is vague and offers little guidance to the employees of the company. “A loaf of bread in every arm” is not only next to impossible to achieve, but it also lacks specifics as to how the employees are to accomplish the company’s goals. In an attempt to clarify the statement, the company issued its “bread leadership goal,” which states “With a single goal of making great bread broadly available to consumers across America, Panera Bread freshly bakes more bread each day than any bakery-café concept in the country.” Although this statement is more specific, it still lacks the details on how the company is going to achieve the stated goals. What is the company doing to fulfill the statement and ensure there is a loaf of bread in every arm? The mission of Panera Bread states that the “Panera Cares community cafes exist to feed each and every person who walks through our doors with dignity regardless of their means.” The services that are offered in these cafes are attempting to fulfill the goal of getting a loaf of bread into every arm. Not only is the company tackling the issues of hunger, but they are also trying to maintain the...
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...Panera Bread Company is a national bakery-cafe with 1,504 locations across the US and Canada. This case study provides information regarding the past performance, current analysis, stock valuation, market evaluation, and industry comparison. In this analysis and case study, we hope you, the reader, will gain usable insight on Panera Bread and its value. We will give a recommendation to our readers according to our given information. Panera Bread is a chain of bakery-cafe quick service restaurants in the United States and Canada that sells breads, sandwiches, soups, salads, and other bakery items. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Panera bread was once originally known as the St. Louis Bread Company. In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co. purchased the Saint Louis Bread Company, which was founded by Ken Rosenthal. At the same time, the St. Louis Bread Company was renovating its 20 bakery-cafés in the St. Louis area. In May 1999, to expand Panera Bread into a national restaurant, Au Bon Pain Co. sold its other chains, including Au Bon Pain, which is now owned by Compass Group North America. Au Bon Pain Co. then renamed itself Panera Bread. The company operates and franchises 1,504 Panera Bread bakery-cafés in 40 states and 17 facilities that deliver fresh dough to the bakery-cafés every day. In its headquarters city of St. Louis, Panera Bread still operates under the name St. Louis Bread Company. The St. Louis Metropolitan area has over 100 locations. In 2005...
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...Panera Bread Co. Have you ever wondered how to start a bakery chain? Well, Ron Shaich, co-founder of Panera Bread Co., started the business while in college. Based on an interview conducted by Colleen Debaise, Shaich was thrown out of a convenience store in the 1970s. He opened a rival shop on the campus of Clark University, where he attended college. After college, Shaich opened a cookie shop in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. (Debaise, 2011) Shaich has thousands of bakers who help make Panera what it is today. “The strategic management process is a sequential set of analyses and choices that increase the likelihood that a firm will choose a strategy that enable it to perform well” (Barney, 2007). According to Chapter 1 of Pearce and Robinson’s Strategic Management, the strategic management process is made up of many critical tasks. These tasks include formulating the company’s mission to include broad statements, conduct analysis that reflects the company’s internal conditions and capabilities, and finally to perform an assessment of the company’s external environment. The mission is fairly short and sweet; “a loaf of bread in every arm’ (Panera, 2011). The goal leadership goal of Panera is very similar to a vision statement, “With the single goal of making great bread broadly available to consumers across America, Panera Bread freshly bakes more bread each day than any bakery-café concept in the country.” (Panera, 2011). Panera has been become a “chill out” spot...
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...PANERA BREAD COMPANY Introduction Panera Bread Company is the national bakery-café concept which operates in the casual restaurant industry. Founded in 1981 by Louis Kane and Ron Schaich, entirely it was registered as Au Bon Pain Co. with several chains. In 1999, the founders sold Au Bon Pain divisions and Panera bread1993. Currently, the company owns 1652 franchise stores in 44 states in United States and in Ontario, Canada The purpose of this essay is to identify and justify the important issues that transform Panera Bread into market-driven company. The market-driven approach is a business perspective that puts the customers as a starting point in all its strategies and operations in order to deliver the superior customer value and gain a competitive advantage (Day, 1994). This approach totally contradicts with the one of the previous years of the Industrial age, which the prominent scholar Drucker (1954) defined that the main purpose of the organization is to generate profit. But nowadays, it appears clear that for the future prosperity of the company, the building of the loyal customer base is necessary condition to be profitable. The support of the latest argument comes from Webster, et al. (1994) where it is concluded that the profit becomes as remuneration for a satisfied and retained customer. There are few capabilities that the company should be aware of in order to be oriented on the market (Cravens and Shipp, 1991). There is the marketing strategic process...
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...Panera Bread Company (2010): Still Rising Fortunes? Synopsis At the time when Panera was built, the fast-food industry was characterized as highlighting low-grade burgers, greasy fries, and sugared colas. Shaich chose to create an informal but comfortable place where consumers could eat fresh-baked artisan breads, sandwiches, and salads without bothering about either it was healthy or not. Panera Bread Company assists as a retail bakery/café restaurant. In 1993, Au Bon Pain Company acquired St. Louis Bread Company. Earlier this, the St. Louis Company was contained of 20 bakery/cafes in the St. Louis area. From 1993 to 1997, Au Bon Pain altered all their bakery café names to Panera Bread. By 1999, Au Bon Pain sold all sales except for Panera Bread Company. Panera Bread Company has maintained growth everywhere their quarters. Panera currently has 429 franchise operations and 173 company-owned bakery/cafes. By growing their sales of franchises, Panera is progressing in other areas as well. The CEO and chairperson of Panera Bread Company is Ronald Shaich. Then Shaich has been the CEO, Panera’s revenue has rose from S350.8 million in 2000 to S1353.5 million in 2009. The key actions of Panera’s growth strategy concentrated on raising store profit, gross profit per transaction and increasing transactions using its capital smartly. The company contributed precise assistances to the expansion of new markets and further penetration of existing markets by controlled franchised bakery-cafés...
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...Panera Bread Case Study What does a SWOT Analysis reveal about the overall attractiveness of its situation? Panera Bread is all about the idea of having good unique food that will keep the customers coming back. They also give a good ambience in the restaurants that strengthen the customer intuition to go back. To start the SWOT Analysis Panera Breads Strengths are: * Attractive and Appealing Menu Items * Trained Bakers * Homemade Items (Breads, Cookies, Bagels) * Nationwide Leader in the baker-café segment * Good Franchisees- higher sales in franchised stores compared to company owned * Financial strength of the company, able to expand * Local customer base * “Panera Warmth” * Catering The strengths of Panera Bread far out way the weakness. Even though that Panera is not as well known as some of these other chain restaurants they still bring in the same amount and Panera is slowly working their way to where they belong. The weaknesses of Panera Bread are: * A less well known name then other rival restaurants * Sales at franchised stores higher the company-owned stores * Some hard times from the 08-09 recession * Weak dinner menu, more lunch or small meals * Marketing * Quality in food could vary Even though there is some weakness to the company, they must realize this and overcome these shortcomings. Every chain restaurant will have its weakness but to improve is to move forward. Which...
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...success is based upon those competitive advantages, such as providing high quality products at reasonable prices to its customers, consistent products, dependability, brand loyalty and offering a great casual dining experience. In addition, the culture plays a critical factor in the Panera family, meaning that employees share common values and beliefs. They are empowered by management which contributes to the team atmosphere. Such culture provides a competitive advantage for the company in terms of transferring satisfaction from the employee to the loyal customer. Panera Bread was established in 1981 by Ron Shaich and as of September 2011 was operating 1,504 company-owned and franchised-operated bakery-cafes in 40 states and Ontario Canada. Originally known as Au bon Pain Company, a competitor was purchased in 1993, Saint Louis Bread, and the name was ultimately renamed Panera Bread in 1999. Their Mission was “A loaf of bread in every arm. Panera Bread’s success spread from East to West with another acquisition. In 2007, Paradise Bakery & Café, a Phoenix based bakery-café concept that added an additional 70 stores and 10 states (1). The core competency of Panera Bread is the quality of its bread offerings. This is at the root of many of their strengths including the customer satisfaction and repeat customer loyalty. This combined with the conservatively operated...
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...Panera Bread Company – History In 1978, Louis Kane purchased Au Bon Pain, a fast casual restaurant that focused on artisan breads. Kane merged Au Bon Pain with Ronald Shaich’s company The Cookie Jar in 1981. Au Bon Pain, looking to move away from their urban niche market, acquired the St. Louis Bread Company in 1993, a 19 store company with a more suburban marketplace. In 1999, after performing market research and studying their newly acquired bakery-concept, the company decided to sell Au Bon Pain and form a new concept, Panera Bread. (Panera Bread Company Overview, 2013) Panera Bread Company - Business Description Panera Bread Company (Panera Bread) is a national bakery-cafe concept involved in providing bakery products through a network of bakery-cafes. It is one of the largest food service companies in the US, serving over seven million customers per week system-wide. Its products are freshly baked goods which include a diverse selection of bagels, breads, muffins, scones, rolls, and sweet goods, made-to-order sandwiches, unique soups and side items, hand-tossed salads, and custom roasted coffees and cafe beverages, including hot or cold espresso, cappuccino drinks and smoothies. The company operates under the trademarked names Panera Bread, Saint Louis Bread Co. and Paradise Bakery & Cafe. Panera Bread operates through three business segments, namely, Company Bakery-Cafe Operations, Franchise Operations, and Fresh Dough and Other Product Operations. The Company...
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