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Panera Bread
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Panera Bread Company/St. Louis Bread Co. | |
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: PNRA) |
| Founded | 1987 in Kirkwood, Missouri |
| Headquarters | Richmond Heights, MO, United States[1] |
| Key people | Ken Rosenthal Founder, Ronald M. Shaich, Founder, Chairman & 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) |
| Slogan | A loaf of bread in every arm |
| Website | www.panerabread.com |
Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA), is a chain of bakery-café restaurants in the United States which sell fresh breads, sandwiches, soups, and bakery items; some locations offer dinner pizzas. Panera is considered a "fast casual" restaurant.
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In 1994, Au Bon Pain Co. purchased the Saint Louis Bread Company founded by Ken Rosenthal. At the same time St. Louis Bread Company was renovating its 20 bakery-cafés in the St. Louis area.[2]
In May 1999, in order 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 Company. The company operates or franchises more than 1,020 Panera Bread bakery-cafés in 38 states[2] and 17 manufacturing plants to support the bakery-cafés.
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 light roast, dark roast, Hazelnut, 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.
Panera also sells cold sandwiches; hot panini-pressed sandwiches; salads; and 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. They have a house brand of organic potato chips, which replaced the Krunchers! chips they formerly served.
Some Panera locations sell "Crispani", an oval-shaped thin-crust gourmet pizza, after 4 p.m. It will be discontinued in most locations in January, 2008.[citation needed]
Some Panera locations sell breakfast sandwiches; most will be selling them by mid-2008.[citation needed]
Parts of the menu are rotated, with seasonal items five times a year called "celebrations", and about two new salads and/or sandwiches at any given time.
Celebration 1 in 2008 will include Irish soda bread and hot cross buns in the Bakery, and Tomato soup with asiago croutons in the Cafe. Crispani is to be discontinued.[citation needed]
Bread dough is mixed at a central facility and shipped to each bakery-cafe to be baked as needed.
Most locations offer free wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) access to customers. Panera operates the largest free wireless network in the United States.[4][5] 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.[6]
- ^ a b Panera Bread Press Kit. Panera Bread. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
- ^ a b Our History. Panera Bread. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
- ^ Au Bon Pain: bakery-cafe weighs in on diet fads, offers more healthful fare to concerned customers Nation's Restaurant News, January 31, 2005.
- ^ 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.