1. What does a SWOT Analysis reveal about the overall attractiveness of its situation?
Panera Bread is a nationwide known bakery-cafe restaurant that provides high quality specialty breads. There are several things that can be revealed about Panera Bread by doing a SWOT Analysis and once broken down you can easily determine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and its threats. Like any other company it has its strengths that sets them apart from any other company and Panera Bread have a number of strength, one being that they are known nationwide and the location such as strip malls and urban neighborhoods help increase their consumer growth. They are also a leader in a fast bakery restaurant industry because of the unique specialty bread they bake; which allows them to have a very attractive menu with an assortment of freshly baked bread and meals to accommodate customers who are health conscious about their diet. Like other cafes they have adapted a homey environment where customers could sit, relax, and eat with access to free Wi-Fi. Some of the weaknesses are that their products tend to be higher priced because of the freshly baked breads and high-quality bread. One other weakness would be that they are less well known as some of their rivals for example Starbucks.
When it comes to opportunities there are a number of things that Panera Bread could incorporate in order to better themselves. The first would be to keep their unique product line and create new items that customers would like. They could offer a menu that has lower prices such as a value menu that can be found at other fast-food place like McDonalds. Lastly the main threat would be their rivals because it’s hard to keep everything unique to just your company without someone doing something similar.

2. Which rival chains appear to be Panera’s closest rivals?
There are a few places that would be considered Panera's closest rivals and they are Atlanta Bread Company, Applebee's, Chili's, Au Bon Pain, and Chipotle. If you look at Applebee's they're prices are lower and there are many locations.

3. What strategic issues and problems does Panera’s management need to address?
A strategic issue that management at Panera Bread need to address is product offering issues, meaning they need to make sure customers understand how fresh and high-quality their ingredients are. To make sure that all workers strive to make sure that everything is made good and lastly keep changing the menu to keep attracting new customers. Some other issues would be their price, keeping it high quality but at a lower price. It's something that needs to be balanced to keep old customers and attract new ones. Management will always have to face marketing issues and where to set up new Panera locations, along with how to make all customers feel comfortable the moment they step into any Panera Bread.

4. How do they look from a financial point of view?
If you look at Panera Bread at a financial view point and take a look at their income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow data over the years since 2002 you will notices the definite increase in total revenue (282,225 in 2002 to 1,822,032 in 2011), operating profit, cash, total assets, and net cash from operating activities. Over all they look good financially, but it can always get better.