Panera Bread Building a Billion Dollar Company Malana Williams MGT405 Strategic Management Professor Carl Place March 6, 2017 Table of Contents Type chapter title (level 1) 1 Type chapter title (level 2) 2 Type chapter title (level 3) 3 Type chapter title (level 1) 4 Type chapter title (level 2) 5 Type chapter title (level 3) 6 Page 2 History of Panera Bread Panera Bread is a billion dollar company with over 2000 locations across the United States. This is a company that started out in 1991 as a subsidiary of Au Bon Pain. Panera Bread was a simple idea to serve soups, sandwiches and salads that people could feel good about while eating. By 1996, Ron Schaich, CEO of Panera Bread, realized there was a dominant market for people …show more content…
With more competitors vying for the same customers as Panera, they decided to refine their positioning in the marketplace. After a year of research and reflection by their senior team, Panera reconceived their brand mission as one of offering craveable wellness and an elevated experience. They also began rolling out Panera 2.0 to select markets. In 2015, they converted an additional 300 cafes to Panera 2.0, reaching about half the company system with about 400 total cafes converted by year-end. Panera 2.0 cafes continued to outperform their traditional cafes, confirming their success in improving the customer experience and increasing guest frequency. In addition, Rapid Pick-Up, an element that debuted as part of Panera 2.0 and was rolled out system-wide in 2014, grew to over 6% of company sales in 2015. Their focus on operations also paid off in 2015, with guest satisfaction scores rising materially year over year. Panera also worked to bring their refined brand positioning to life with innovative menu items intended to drive brand reputation, category credibility and product excitement. Panera introduced culinary successes, like their very popular