Synopsis
Panera Bread Company is an intriguing business operation that came to be an exceptional “fast casual” restaurant through observing, learning, acquiring, and divesting of unprofitable assets. Panera’s history began when Pavailler, a French oven manufacturer, opened a demonstration bakery in Boston by the name of Au Bon Pain in 1976. In 1978 an adventure capitalist by the name of Louis Kane purchased Au Bon Pain. Kane had great aspirations for expanding Au Bon Pain, but had little success. In 1981 Robert Shaich, a Harvard Business graduate, small business owner, and master baker, merged his own cookie bakery with that of Kane’s bread bakery forming Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. With Shaich’s smart business sense and Kane’s business connections the two partners, and co-CEOs, were able to successfully expand Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. while at the same time reducing debts incurred by Kane’s initial unsuccessfulness. In 1985 Kane and Shaich successfully transitioned their bakery into a “fast casual” restaurant by adding sandwiches to their menu. The year 1991 marked perhaps the greatest accomplishment for Kane and Shaich as this was the year they took Au Bon Pain public.
The success of Au Bon Pain continued even further upon the acquisition of the Saint Louis Bread Company in 1993. For several years Au Bon Pain’s management studied Saint Louis Bread Company’s operations as well as watched the habits of their consumer base. Eventually, Au Bon Pain’s management realized the business habits of their new acquisition had the capability to lead them even further down the road of success. For the next several years Au Bon Pain focused much of its time, effort, and capital on the successful expansion of their café style Saint Louis Bread stores, al...
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...ect on the other segments. Moreton needs to forever be on his toes and ensure all segments are operating to their fullest capabilities so that Panera can continue to keep its debts low and its name well-known in the food service industry.
As of the end of 2009 Panera had yet to access its $250 million credit facility. If Moreton continues to keep Panera’s total assets at approximately three and a half times its total liabilities Panera should not have to access that credit facility nor should the company have to worry about having to pass up a future strategic alliance or acquisition. Low debts, high assets, and continued watchfulness of all business operations are the key to Panera’s future success.
Works Cited
Wheelen, Thomas L. and J. David Hunger. Strategic Management and Business Policy, 13th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2012. Print.
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
2. Thompson and Strickland (2002), Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, 13th Edition, Chicago Irwin Publications.
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.
Senior Management of PepsiCo is evaluating the potential acquisition of two companies – Carts of Colorado and California Pizza Kitchen – in order to expand the company’s restaurant business. If indeed PepsiCo decides to pursue the acquisition of one or both, they must decide how to align each of these business units in its historically decentralized management approach and how to forge relationships between the acquired business units and existing business units. In their evaluation, Senior Management is faced with the question of whether the necessary capital investment in order to purchase one or both of the businesses can be profitable for each of the acquired business units, but must also take into consideration that the additional business units will not hinder the profitability of the existing business units.
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).
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Seeking to extend into other markets, the pair obtained St. Louis Bread Company, seeing the benefits of acquiring an already established enterprise. The niche market that Au Bon Pain had enjoyed previously, had become a strategic weakness as it became limiting. The bakery-café culture developed by the St. Louis Bread Company was too costly to implement at the Au Bon Pain locations. Shaich, the remaining founder, sold Au Bon Pain which left no debt and cash reserves to expand the St. Louis Bread Company, known as Panera Bread Company outside the St. Louis area. Strategy Growth
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
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Pearce, J. A., & Robinson, R. B. (2013). Strategic management: planning for domestic & global competition (13th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Schultz, H. (2011). Onward: How Starbucks fought for its life without losing its soul. New York: Rodale.