Panera Bread
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Panera Bread | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: PNRA) |
| Founded | 1987 in Kirkwood, Missouri |
| Headquarters | Richmond Heights, Missouri, United States[1] |
| Key people | Ken Rosenthal, founder Ronald M. Shaich, founder, chairman, and CEO Louis Kane, founder[1] |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Products | Fast casual/Bakery-café, including several varieties of bread, such as bagels and muffins, cold sandwiches, hot panini, salads, soups, and pizzas |
| Revenue |  $597.09 million USD (2005) |
| Employees | 4,746 full time (December 2005) |
| Website | www.panerabread.com |
Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA), is a chain of bakery-café restaurants in the United States and Canada which sell breads, sandwiches, soups, and bakery items; some locations offer dinner pizzas. Panera is considered a "fast casual" restaurant.
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[edit] Corporate history
In 1994, 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.[2]
In May 1999, to expand Panera Bread into a national chain, Au Bon Pain Co. sold its other chains, including Au Bon Pain, which is now owned by Compass Group North America.[3] Au Bon Pain Co. then renamed itself Panera Bread. The company operates or franchises more than 1,160 Panera Bread bakery-cafés in 40 states[2] and 17 manufacturing plants to support the bakery-cafés. Panera Bread's CEO is Ron Shaich.
In its headquarters city of St. Louis, Panera Bread still operates under the name St. Louis Bread Company. The metropolitan St. Louis area has over 50 locations.
Panera Bread plans to expand into Canada, beginning with Toronto in 2008.[4][5]
[edit] Menu
The restaurant sells several types of bread, including loaves, bagels, and rolls. Sweeter bakery items such as muffins, cookies, croissants, Danish and other pastries are also offered. Drinks include Republic of Tea hot teas, iced tea, self service coffee urns (one each of hazelnut, Featured Blend, Cafe Blend and decaf), several espresso-based beverages, self-service fountain soda, and bottled Jones Sodas. Panera had an exclusive distribution deal to sell an early version of Jones' then-new chocolate-flavored soda.[citation needed]
Panera also sells cold sandwiches, hot panini-pressed sandwiches, and salads. The restaurant sells four to six kinds of soups – including French onion, broccoli cheddar, chicken noodle – and two seasonal soups, including at least one vegetarian selection. The soups are made by an outside supplier, but are formulated by and exclusive to Panera. All of Panera's sauces, dressings, and spreads are also formulated by and are exclusive to Panera Bread. They have a house brand of organic potato chips, which replaced the Krunchers! chips that were formerly served.
Some Panera restaurants serve "Crispani" Pizza, an oval-shaped thin-crust gourmet pizza, after 4:00 p.m. However, many locations have discontinued it.[citation needed]
Some Panera locations sell breakfast sandwiches. The sandwiches are made with egg, cheese, and meat. The eggs are cooked using a combination of "shearing" and frying the eggs.[citation needed] The sandwiches themselves can be cooked on a store's panini press.
Parts of the menu are rotated, with seasonal items five times a year, and about two new salads and/or sandwiches at any given time. Bagels and seasonal breads are also rotated regularly.
Bread dough is mixed at a central facility and shipped to each restaurant to be baked as needed.
[edit] Internet access
Most locations offer free wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) access to customers. Panera operates the largest free wireless network in the United States.[6][7] This service includes SonicWALL Internet filtering, which queries a central database before blocking or allowing access by category; the filter has been known to incorrectly categorize sites.[8]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Panera Bread Press Kit. Panera Bread. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
- ^ a b Our History. Panera Bread. Retrieved on 2008-01-30.
- ^ Au Bon Pain: bakery-cafe weighs in on diet fads, offers more healthful fare to concerned customers Nation's Restaurant News, January 31, 2005.
- ^ Walkup, Carylyn. "Panera Bread to launch dinner menu, push toward 1,000 units", Nation's Restaurant News, 2006-06-19. Retrieved on 2008-03-03.
- ^ Brown, Lisa R. "Panera Bread headquarters in play", St. Louis Business Journal, 2007-10-26. Retrieved on 2008-03-03.
- ^ Zumpano, Anthony. "Panera Bread: flour power", features, brandchannel, 2006-10-23. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
- ^ Nowlin, Terrence. "Plugging into wireless: wireless Internet is making its way into more parks nationwide", Parks & Recreation, National Recreation and Park Association, 2006-11-01. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
- ^ SonicWall at Computers OnSale. Computers OnSale. Retrieved on 2007-10-25.
