Panera Bread Mission Statement

At the end of 2007, Panera Bread Company was in an unfamiliar position where taking out debt was a necessary action to gain funding. Raising prices would be an option to help with the deteriorating margins, but there is fear that this move will slow the growth of the company. Other options, such as lowering the quality of food, would go against Panera’s fundamental goal of serving high quality food. At this time, Panera is in a position where it needs to repurchase stock. The $75 million buy-back should help give confidence to their shareholders. However, to accomplish their growth goals and stock repurchase, Panera will require external funding for the first time.

Panera Bread is a symbol of warmth and welcome and they believe that food should be so good that you should feel good about eating it. Thirty years ago Louis Kane and Ron Shaich began a simple commitment: to bake fresh bread from fresh dough in their bakery-cafes, taking no short cuts, just bakers with simple ingredients and hot ovens (Panera Bread, Media, n.d.).

The Panera Bread Company is starting 2007 with unfinished goals and missed targets previously set and a review of their strategy is in order to continue their ongoing success. The company has grown substantially since its inception in the competitive restaurant industry; however, an aggressive target of 2,000 Panera Bread bakery-cafes will require a focused strategic plan. The company has a strong base with loyal customers who appreciate Panera’s unique dining atmosphere with a focus on quality products at a reasonable price. Panera will need to continue its market research and focus on environmental issues, which are an important core value. The opportunity for

Expanding the target market of Panera Bread is a good growth opportunity for them. This can be achieved by product line (menu options) extension or by entering international market outside the American continent so as to increase their geographical coverage. In addition, Panera has an opportunity to get additional market and growth by adapting rapidly to changing market and customer preferences. They need to advertise and market themselves as a healthy option for eating out. Health oriented food or food that are low in calories, sugar, cholesterol, etc. is getting very important as people started becoming very health conscious and selective. Their effort to roll out new products with fresher ingredients such as antibiotic-free chicken needs to be further expanded. Recognizing the health risks associated with transfat, Panera had completely removed all transfat from its menu by 2006. Organic food, non GMO, etc. They could increase number of their franchises. A number of markets were still available for franchise development. The have opportunity in front of them to open more outlets, both company-owned and franchises. They could open within North America and mainly in areas where they are not present now, and those areas where the growth potential is good, like some of the suburban markets. Many good locations for fast casual dining options are available in many of the untapped areas. Panera has a good market opportunity outside the small urban niche where greater growth

The driving concept behind Panera Bread is to provide a premium specialty bakery and café experience to urban workers and suburban dwellers. Panera can compete at a high level in the quick food industry because of what they offer customers better than their

As mentioned in the case study, Panera Bread Company is known to be one of the leading bakery/café that offers freshly baked pastries and French inspired entrées across various states in the US. However in the recent years, Panera Bread faced a decrease in their usual high growth rate from 9.1% and 12.0% in the year 2000 to merely 0.2% and 0.5% of comparable sales and annualized unit volumes respectively.

“A loaf of bread in every arm” is the mission statement of Panera Bread Company (Vincelette & Fogarty, 2010, p.1). Panera started as a small bakery under the name Au Bon Pain and grew to one of the largest fast food service companies in the U.S. In 2008 they had the 5th overall rating in the restaurant industry. “Panera Bread is widely recognized for driving the nationwide trend for specialty breads” (Panera Bread, 2011).

Panera is also consistently referred to as “the leader in the fast-casual industry.” This leads us to believe that there are not a plethora of competitors with equal size and competitive strength at the moment. Panera also has one of the most loyal consumer bases in the industry. TNS Intersearch conducted a study in 2011 that scored Panera the highest level of customer loyalty among quick-casual restaurants. They are less likely to switch to rival competitors.

Being a nationally recognized brand and a dominant in restaurant operations in the specialty bakery café segment and to expand broadly in the regional market is Panera’s strategy. And by giving high quality product Panera is following their strategy.

Panera targets consumers who seek meals of higher quality than they would find at the traditional fast food chain, but don’t have the time to dine in or have a sit-down meal at a restaurant. Though there are many other restaurants who offer this same combination, they tend to be local and do not benefit from a national brand name with a large advertising budget.

Panera Bread quadrupled revenues from $282,225,000 to $828,971,000 by 2006. Most of the revenue has come from their bakery-café sales. They also generate revenue from the sale of dough to their franchise locations as well as the franchise fees they charge to their franchisees. Panera Bread has been very profitable in part because they have avoided taking on large marketing endeavors and employ a long supply chain to get supplies from one franchise to another. Plus, with bulk or pooled purchasing of certain supplies, Panera Bread exercises bargaining power over suppliers. Their operating profit margin denotes the success they had in the early years of the operation such as in 2004. However, that margin slightly shrank over the next two years, 2005 and 2006.

Panera Bread’s intention is “to make Panera Bread a nationally recognized brand name and to be the dominant restaurant operator in the specialty bakery-café segment.” Panera experienced competition from many numerous sources in its trade areas. Their competition was with specialty food, casual dining and quick service cafes, bakeries, and restaurant retailers, including national, regional, and locally owned. The competitive factors included location, environment, customer service, price, and quality of products. Panera learned from its competitors, none of its competitors had yet

Panera Bread has much strength within their business. In the beginning, Panera Bread recognized another company, Saint Louis Bread Company, to aid in strengthening their market standing and competitiveness by purchasing the company. Panera Bread further strengthened their company by redesigning the newly acquired company to have a more appealing dining experience, better quality, customer service, and wider product selection. After redesign was complete, the newly named Panera Bread recognized the new company design has a cash hog and made the wise decision to sell off

Putois a mythical character that the town of Saint-Omer believes to be an evil man doing bad deeds. A mythical character that is a familiar figure of the town, when something wrong would go about he is the one that everyone turned their fingers to blame. A man born at a mature age, created by Zoe and Lucien’s Bergeret mother for her own desire because she was out of excuses when Madame Cornouiller insisted they would dine in with each other every Sunday as done by the best of families.

Fresh water is needed to sustain life for humans, animals, and plant life. Desalination plants should be built to aid in providing this necessary resource. According to the article entitled “A Source of Freshwater” the process of water desalination has been around since the time of Aristotle in 320 BCE. Also, desalination plants are inexpensive. Next, the plant will make up to 56 million gallons of fresh water each day. There for, 14% of people will lack fresh water by 2025. Finally desalination is the solution for the future. Some may say that the plants are too costly to build or bad for the environment, but it is well worth the costs and steps could be taken to protect ensure safety. In conclusion, water desalination plants should be built