Panera Bread Company 2012 Annual Report
Panera Bread Company
2012 Annual Report to Stockholders
April 18, 2013
Dear Stockholder,
For years now, you have heard us say that the real test of a company is its ability to generate shareholder value over the long-term.
With that said, we realize that a management team’s credibility is built by delivering results year-over-year, quarter-by-quarter. Thus, we are pleased to report that 2012 was another extraordinary year for Panera.
We’re proud to have exceeded our earnings targets in each quarter of 2012. In 2012, our earnings per share (EPS), excluding a onetime legal charge in 2011, grew 27%. These results were driven by company comparable bakery-cafe sales growth of 6.5%, the opening of 123 new bakery-cafes system-wide at record opening volumes and our strong operating disciplines. We are especially proud of the fact that, despite the volatility over the past half-decade in the U.S. economy, this was the fifth consecutive year that our
EPS has grown 24% or greater and the fifth consecutive year in which we exceeded the upper end of our long-term EPS growth target of 15%-20%. This performance puts us at or near the top of our industry. It thus seems fitting to us that this year, for the first time in our history, Panera Bread made it onto the highly coveted list of FORTUNE’s “World’s Most Admired Companies ”, confirming the pride we all feel in Panera.
Shareholders who read our letters over the years know that it is our most fundamental belief that, in order to generate the kind of performance we have produced, we must excel at delivering a differentiated experience to millions of customers each week across our store base of almost 1,700 cafes. To that end, our focus in 2012 continued to be on improving the overall quality of the Panera experience by investing in these four key areas: the quality of our food, the evolution of our marketing, the growth of our catering business and the quality of our operations (all of which were facilitated
2012 Annual Report to Stockholders
April 18, 2013
Dear Stockholder,
For years now, you have heard us say that the real test of a company is its ability to generate shareholder value over the long-term.
With that said, we realize that a management team’s credibility is built by delivering results year-over-year, quarter-by-quarter. Thus, we are pleased to report that 2012 was another extraordinary year for Panera.
We’re proud to have exceeded our earnings targets in each quarter of 2012. In 2012, our earnings per share (EPS), excluding a onetime legal charge in 2011, grew 27%. These results were driven by company comparable bakery-cafe sales growth of 6.5%, the opening of 123 new bakery-cafes system-wide at record opening volumes and our strong operating disciplines. We are especially proud of the fact that, despite the volatility over the past half-decade in the U.S. economy, this was the fifth consecutive year that our
EPS has grown 24% or greater and the fifth consecutive year in which we exceeded the upper end of our long-term EPS growth target of 15%-20%. This performance puts us at or near the top of our industry. It thus seems fitting to us that this year, for the first time in our history, Panera Bread made it onto the highly coveted list of FORTUNE’s “World’s Most Admired Companies ”, confirming the pride we all feel in Panera.
Shareholders who read our letters over the years know that it is our most fundamental belief that, in order to generate the kind of performance we have produced, we must excel at delivering a differentiated experience to millions of customers each week across our store base of almost 1,700 cafes. To that end, our focus in 2012 continued to be on improving the overall quality of the Panera experience by investing in these four key areas: the quality of our food, the evolution of our marketing, the growth of our catering business and the quality of our operations (all of which were facilitated