Panera Bread Company Case Study

Case 8: Panera Bread Company 1. Panera Bread’s strategy is to make great bread broadly available to consumers across the US. The vision was to provide consumers with a high quality, authentic, fresh-dough artisan bakery and upscale quick-service dining experience. The following key elements comprise the Panera Bread strategy: a. Capitalize on market potential by opening both company-owned and franchised Panera Bread locations as quickly as possible. Management planned to expand the number of Panera Bread locations by 17% annually through 2010 and to achieve EPS growth of 25% annually. The addition of the franchising option to the strategy has proven to be key in acquiring desired market penetration. b. Offer a more nutritious fast food dining option. Panera Bread’s signature product is fresh-baked artisan bread made with limited ingredients and no preservatives or chemicals. The rest of the Panera menu offerings are built upon this bakery expertise. The menu groups were fresh baked goods, made-to-order sandwiches and salads, soups, light entrees, and café beverages. c. Compete successfully in five submarkets of the food-away-from-home industry. Panera Bread utilizes its distinctive menu, signature café design, inviting ambience, operating systems, and unit location strategy to compete successfully. The submarkets that Panera competes in are: breakfast, lunch, daytime “chill out”, light evening fare for take-out or dine-in, and take-home bread. Panera’s goal was to increase dining at multiple meal times: breakfast, lunch, daytime “chill out”, and dinner. d. Enhance menu in order to become a nationally recognized brand name and to be the dominant restaurant operator in the specialty bakery-café segment. The menu enhancements focused on attracting customers during the evening meal hours and customer interests. Panera added light entrees such as a crispani in order to bolster appeal to evening diners. The menu