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 leads to the many opportunities open to Panera. They are: * International Expansion * Open in more outlet areas * Marketing improvement * More meal oriented to attract dinner crowds * More health consciousness awareness * More franchisee (They are making more money) * Organic Foods * Locally Bought Opportunities are on and on for a company such as Panera. They already have a great menu with fresh breads but if they added more fresh ingredients or bought local then marketed that in more suburban areas they could hit a whole new crowd. The last piece of the SWOT Analysis is the threats. Every company has them and every restaurant needs to find them and eliminate them before they are overcome by them. Some of Panera’s threats are: * Rival chains imitating the menu * Restaurants trying to bring the “Panera Warmth” to theirs * Saturating the market * Failure with catering * Less business for dinner Overall the SWOT Analysis of Panera Bread reveals a competitive advantage. They have all the tools and ability to be a great chain. They have to grow more in management, franchised-owned stores, and in marketing areas. Which rival chains appear to be Panera’s closets rivals? Panera Bread operates in the very competitive restaurant industry. It competes against all the large fast food companies such as Chili’s, Cracker Barrel, Applebee’s, and Noodles & Company. They also compete with cafes such as Starbucks and other such as Atlanta Bread Company, Au Bon Pain and Chipotle. Panera Bread is one of the younger companies in the industry though, which means it room for growth is still abundant. Starbucks is one of Panera’s closest and most important competitor. It has more that about ten times more locations and around eight times the revenue Panera does. Starbucks has a strong international expansion and an excellent reputation for customers. Applebee’s is another one of the Panera’s closet rivals. With double the locations around the U.S. they have a strong hold on the dinner crowd. They offer more meals that you could eat for dinner. Applebee’s also offers the under-500 calorie meals. What strategic issues and problems does Panera’s management need to address? One strategic issue for Panera Bread management is expansion. If they expand too quickly or too close together, it would cause many problems for the company being to saturated. If these expansions problems become a main issue they need to fix it right away because then they won’t know where to build the next one or the one after that. Another issue would be their menu. They have a great lunch and breakfast menu but they are really losing out in the dinner area of the day. They could be making much more in sales if they could come up with different items to make a dinner. One last issue with Panera is the competition. They have so much out there that they NEED to be different. They already have the “Panera Warmth” when you go into their stores, but there has to be something else. Any restaurant can get the ambience so Panera really has to think outside the box for the next big thing. Dinner, locally bought produce, they already have fresh breads, or even going back to the dinner menu changing it so a family could come in and get a nice meal. Those are what I think that Panera’s management needs to work on. How do they look from a financial point of view? Just looking at the financial data included in this case study you can see that Panera has only increased in profits. In 2002 at a company-operated store the revenue was $212.6 million. Then looking again in at 2011 they are up to $1,593.0 million. In-between those years there are no downfalls they haven’t been hit by the crushing recession of 2008 to 2009 Panera had only grown more and more. They have opened many more stores also in this time period. In 2002 they only have 132 company-owned stores and 346 franchise stores. In 2011 they are up to 740 company-owned stores and 801 franchise stores. Throughout those years you see the numbers of stores drop but in the next coming years they only rise again. Panera Bread is in a good stable place for the economic period we are currently in. they have more to grow and they have more to change. Those two qualities only can strengthen a company. That is my case analysis of Panera Bread. They are a strong company with the ability to grow and change course if needed. They have the chance to build a strong relationship with the customers they serve to keep them coming back. They just to keep that crowd growing and they shouldn’t have to worry about other restaurants.