Summary: Oven manufacturer of France created a company known as the “Au Bon Pain,” the company was filled with commendable ideas and turned a marginal profit. Until a venture capitalist by the name of Louis Kain came along, in his travels Kain came across the opportunity to purchase the “Au Bon Pain,” and did because he thought it would be a worthy investment. Kain, then proceeded to open numerous locations across France, he had great items for consumption, but something was missing. After opening more than ten sites and had no good fortune Kain came across a gentleman by the name Ronald Shaich, who also owned a small company known as “The Cookie Jar Bakery.” The two men agreed to a merger of both the small companies creating a large profitable business, the two were brilliant together in how they increased their profits. …show more content…
Panera has dominated the marketplace over the previous fifteen years; in 2009 their returns reached over one billion in revenue. Ronald Shaich, was succeeded in 2011 by a gentleman named William Moreton, who now operates “Panera Bread.”
Organization’s Resources:
There are now over 1,300 franchises across North America; due to William Moreton over the last six years Panera revenue has risen. Panera promotes and train from within which in turn displays their employee’s appreciation by providing better customer service, this is only one attribute that brought Panera a large degree of success. Panera also influence Property owners with its brand and established track record to acquire property or leases, property owners are willing to offer Panera better deals because of knowing that they will be a long term investment.
With a high turnover, it can mean two things for a company. Panera Bread is either ineffective in
Did you know Panera Bread is one of the fastest growing franchises in America (Panera Bread Franchise)? The restaurant must have great qualities for people of all kinds to love it as much as they do. Visiting Panera Bread I had an awesome experience mainly because of its physical environment. Panera Bread has a great environment which is ideal for encouraging consistent business.
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.
Despite the economically uncertainty Pret A Manger keeps on thriving in the U.S. fast food market. It’s growing fast, with huge success. Pret is proving to the world its a big threat in the sandwich industry. In 2011, U.S. sales up 40% from the year before, “the company’s overall profits grew by 37% in 2010, and annual workforce turnover is only 60%, compared to fast food industry averages of 300-400%.” (Smart Advantage)
Some strengths that Panera Bread has over it’s competition is that is provides the high and good quality ingredients to its customers. It also gives these customers a difference dining experience compared to McDonalds and Five Guys just to name two competitors. They have catering, fresh baked goods and quickly prepared foods. They also have a great brand name over the years. They have been able to continue on growing financially over the years. Studies also show that majority of customers are very satisfied with Panera Bread.
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].
Panera seems poised to continue to dominate the bakery-café market and continued sustainable growth is very likely. Works Cited The “Annual Report” (2010). Retrieved from http://www.panerabread.com/pdf/10k-2010.pdf “Company Overview.” (2011). Retrieved from http://www.panerabread.com/about/company/ “News Release.”
Combating VUCA: The Case of Panera Bread Co. The business world today is highly competitive and riddled with extreme volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Just thinking and taking actions would not solve the challenges.
Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of the most popular Mexican restaurants in the United States, which offers burritos, bowls, tacos, and salads. It is one of my favorite restaurants to visit.
One of the original owners, Julian Metcalfe states that, “When Pret started there was nothing else. So with Pret it was about preservative-free food. It was about how can we make food every day and get rid of it every night.” With companies like like Panera Bread, Cosi, Chipotle and Au Bon Pain they now have direct competition. Pret than differentiate itself using top notch customer service techniques.
America is a capitalist society. It should come to a surprise when we live like this daily. We work for profit. We’ll buy either for pleasure or to sell later for profit. It should come to no surprise that our food is made the same way because we are what we eat. We are capitalist that eat a capitalist meal. So we must question our politics. Is our government system to blame for accepting and encouraging monopolies?
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.
The term “Sandwich Generation” is what some are using to describe those people who, for one reason or another, are ‘sandwiched’ between the need to provide care not only for their own children but also for at least one aging parent. There has been much debate on what classifies someone as being included in such group, and little emphasis on the hardships that accompany the transition between child and caregiver. This paper will discuss the classification that make up the “sandwich generation’ and some of the financial and emotional stress that comes with this new responsibility.
My favorite meal is the chicken fettuccini pasta. I chose this dish because I can never stop eating it. The meal is made up of warm tenderized chunks of chicken, delicate smooth creamy white sauce, and many varieties of sliced up vegetables. However, when I was a child vegetables has always been difficult to eat. It prevented me from enjoying my favorite meal because I would always have to take out the mixed vegetables in the meal. As a child I 've tried avoiding vegetables, but was found throughout the school cafeteria 's food, my mother 's cooking, or many fancy restaurants. There was nowhere to run. Over the years, my mother knew I was struggling to eat vegetables. She worked very hard by coming up with her own recipes in order for me to eat healthy. From mixing in the vegetables into the meals I usually eat or to trick me into eating meat but was actually vegetables. Soon later I came to realize how much effort she has put into the meals. All those hour and hard work my mother put it allowed me to enjoy my favorite meal again.