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Panera bread company case study
Panera bread company case study
Panera bread management and organization
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Synopsis
Panera Bread Company is a national bakery-cafe with locations across the US and Canada. Panera bread prides itself on selling breads, sandwiches, soups and salads. Panera grew out of a company called Au Bon Pain which was a demonstration bakery (Wheelen & Hunger, 2012, p. 32-2). Louis Kane purchased Au Bon Pain in 1978. From 1978 to 1981 he piled up $3 million in debt (Wheelen & Hunger, 2012, p. 32-2). Kiane who was ready to declare bankruptcy gained a new business partner, Ronald Shaich a recent Harvard graduate. Shaich was the hard driving, analytical strategist focused on operations, and Kane was the seasoned businessperson with a wealth of real estate and finance connections (Wheelen & Hunger, 2012, p. 32-2).
In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co. purchased the Saint Louis Bread Company, which was founded by Ken Rosenthal. Shaich saw this as the company’s “gateway into the suburban marketplace(Wheelen & Hunger, 2012, p. 32-2). At the same time, the St. Louis Bread Company was renovating its 20 bakery-cafés in the St. Louis area. Management spent many years looking for the ideal concept that would unite the two company’s operantional abilities and quality of food. Saint Louis Bread Company would eventually become the platform for Panera Bread(Wheelen & Hunger, 2012, p. 32-2).
In May 1999 Saich would sell Au Bon Pain for $73 million. This sale would leave Panera Bread Company debt-free and the cash allowance for the immediate expansion of its bakery-café stores. The company would grow thorough franchise agreements, acquisitions and new company owned bakery-cafes(Wheelen & Hunger, 2012, p. 32-3).
Resources
Panera’s goal is to offer its customer a memorable experience with superior customer s...
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...ay our grandparents did it: no preservatives, no chemicals, with a stone deck oven. The quality of food came not just from how cheap it was, and not just how fast it was served. It was food defined by the quality of the ingredients, the taste, the flavors, how fresh it was. The environment in stores was part of that, and the people who work there were part of that. To develop a strong connection with our customers, our bakery-cafes are staffed by engaged associates who are skilled at and passionate about their jobs. I believe high-quality restaurant management is critical to our long-term success and, as such, we provide detailed operations manuals and hands-on training to each of our associates.
Works Cited
Wheelen, T., & Hunger, J. (2012). Strategic management and business policy: Toward global sustainability (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
The founhder of the company, Godfrey Keebler, started with jus a small bakery in Philadelphia, PA in 1853. During the next two generations, local bakeries popped up around the country, including Strietmann, Hekman, Supreme and Bowman. With the introduction of cars and trucks (carrying the Keebler logo), bakery goods could be distributed beyond the neighborhood and regional distribution began.
Don’t feel like cooking tonight or going for carry out, no problem have a Marie Callender’s Turkey Pop Pie or maybe something exotic like P. F. Chang’s Mongolian Style Chicken. No matter what may satisfy your taste buds if it can be found in your freezer or pantry chances are it’s one of ConAgra’s various brands. ConAgra’s Foods brands can be found in most American’s households. With their commitment to provide products that deliver outstanding taste, nutrition and value ConAgra have created ways to improve sustainable business practices and create innovative programs that deliver on their promise of being a leading corporation. By developing organizational structures ConAgra Foods has influenced employee’s to maximize their full potential, develop group cohesiveness, and embrace the inclusion of diversity in the workplace ConAgra is able to provide
Receiving steady business and making sure customer’s wants and needs are met in the restaurant world is the only way to ensure a successful business. The environments you experience can affect everything. Panera Bread’s comfortable relaxed environment encourages a happy mood which will lead to people continuing to dine with them. Panera Bread is an excellent restaurant and my overall experience was amazing. I will recommend the restaurant to other with no discretion.
The fast food restaurant industry, which includes quick-service and fast-casual restaurants, is highly segmented with the top 50 companies accounting for only 25% of the industry’s sales. The $120 billion industry includes over 200,000 restaurants with 50% of those specializing in hamburger entrees. (hoovers.com 2008) The major competitors in the industry include McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, and KFC – Chick-fil-A’s major competitor in chicken sales. Chick-fil-A’s unique position in the market, specializing in chicken-based entrées, has lead to a competitive advantage which the company has been able to capitalize on. Recently, many competitors have added chicken entrees in order to compete in the market segment. Through marketing strategies and company initiatives, Chick-fil-A has tried to stay distant from competitors, offering a fresh alternative to the ordinary fast food restaurant.
Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D. (2010). In Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy Achieving Sustainability, Twelfth Edition. Pearson Education.
IHOP was not always a multinational conglomerate. It is now one of the nations leading sit down, cheap restraint chains. With over 1,000 locations world wide it is a commonly known restraint. As of recent IHOP has had a 52-week high of 39.4 and a low of 27.04. Recently, IHOP rang the bell of the NYSE in celebration of the kick-off of the National Pancake Day (March 4) and the launch of a brand rejuvenation strategy for IHOP, which celebrates its 45th year in business this July. In honor of the occasion, Julia A. Stewart, President, CEO, COO rang the bell.
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The Panera Bread Company began in 1981 as Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. Founded by Ron Shaich and Louis Kane, the company thrived along the east coast of the United States and internationally throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s and became the dominant operator within the bakery-café category. In the early 1990’s, Saint Louis Bread company, a chain of 20 bakery-cafes were acquired by the Au Bon Pain Co. Following this purchase, the company redesigned the newly acquired company and increased unit volumes by 75%. This new concept was named Panera Bread. Top management chose to sell their previous bakery-café known as Au Bon Pain Co. due to the financial and managerial needs of Panera. In order for Panera to become the success top management visualized all resources needed to become available for Panera. Panera Bread is now the most successful bakery-café in the category in which there are currently 1,777 bakery-cafes in 45 states and in Ontario Canada (Panera Bread).
Chick-fil-A recognizes that their brand promise starts the minute the customer enters the premises. When a store opens for the first time, the franchised operator doesn’t just see an opportunity to sell his food product, but rather a “chance to interact, build community, and engage with customers and the community at large. We do this in a variety of ways. First and foremost, we strive to provide 2nd Mile Service to each customer. As we work to continuously improve, we want customers to experience something unique. We want to build community and create relationships between our customers and our food, people and restaurants” [3].
Kroger was also an inventor, of food products. What was born in his mother’s kitchen, of just a tangy German sauerkraut has grown into over 30 facilities that manufacture the Kroger brand. Just another example this company meeting its objective to serve and please its customer base. Kroger understood from the very beginning, the value of the customer base, which according to the text Managing Customer Relationships is simply put, is to get, keep, and grow customers and is the very objective of the Kroger brand. Mr. Kroger was a natural born leader and servant and built this concept into the very framework of the company. Every step he took, focused on this premise, and soon he built a successful model that many other merchants fervently attempted to duplicate. The modern supermarket owes it roots to this early adventure in
BR was sold to Delta Foods in 1996 for US $2 billion. At this time, it was one of the largest fast-food chains in the world generating sales of US $6.8 billion. DF purchase of BR brought in a new cultural paradigm. DF is an individualistic, aggressive growth company with brands they believe are strong enough to support entry into new overseas markets without the need for local partnership. The DF strategy is one of direct acquisition and JV’s were not part of their strong suit. DF strategic implementation is based on hiring local managers directly or transferring seasoned managers from their soft drink and snack food divisions. The DF disdain for JVs is clearly reflected by their participation in only those JVs where local partnering was mandatory (e.g. China) to overcome regulatory barriers to entry. JVs had been the predominant strategy for BR which was unlike the DF outlook. Terralumen’s strategy was misaligned and out of sync with the DF strategy. This was unlike the complementarity that existed with BR’s strategy. This misalignment began to affect the JV relationship that had worked well with BR in the initial years. The failure of Terralumen and DF to recognize this fundamental cultural difference between their operational strategy styles i.e. Individualistic and Collectivism leads to their inability to proactively create steps for better alignment in the early period after acquisition, creating uncertainties and difficulties for both corporations. There is a lack of communication and virtually absence of trust between two new partners. DF appeared to be flexing its muscles in the relationship and using a more masculine approach compared to Terralumen’s more feminine approach. Both the corporations are strategically involved in a complex situation where they appear reluctant to address the issues at stake and move ahead together. The DF strategy of
Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D. (2012). Strategic Management and Business Policy: Towards Global Sustainability. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
The main challenge is to determine how Panera Bread can continue to achieve high growth rates in the future. Panera Bread is operating in an extremely high competitive restaurant market which forces the company to improve and to grow steadily for staying profitable. The company’s mission statement of putting “a loaf of bread in every arm” is just underlying Panera’s commitment for growing. They are now in a good financial situation and facing growth rates of up to 20% per year in a niche market that has a great growth potential. In the next 7 years the fast-casual market is expected to grow by 500% in sales to a total of $30 billion.
Witcher, B., and Chau, S. V., 2010. Strategic Management: Principles and Practice. Cengage Learning EMEA.
Hitt, M., Ireland, and Hoskisson, R. (2009).Strategic management: Competitive and Globalization, Concepts and Cases. In M.Staudt & Stranz (Ed).