Panera Bread has continued to adapt components of their strategy as the economy, new opportunities and technology have presented themselves. Their overall strategy focuses on providing fresh high quality food in the fast-casual food market. Offering a variety of made to order sandwiches, soups, bakery items, and beverages. They also focus their attention on creating a relaxing atmosphere to tailor to the suburban upscale neighborhoods. Of the five competitive strategies Panera Breads is most similar to a broad differentiation strategy.
A few areas that they have set themselves apart from competitors is through starting their business with the focus on friendly customer service. They have also started …show more content…
(2014). Panera Bread Company SWOT Analysis, 1-8.
Panera's value chain
One way that Panera’s supply chain management contributes to maintaining their competitive advantages is through delivering fresh dough delivered that is baked daily for fresh bread. This dough is produced at facilities and transported in temperature cooled trucks to both franchise and company owned stores. They also work from a list of approve vendors and secondary companies to meet less critical needs. These vendors meet the high standards that Panera hold themselves to.
As for their operations. They successfully run franchises and place stores in targeted demographic area. Their ability to tailor their menu items and ingredients to meet consumer needs is a strength that has helped earn their reputation.
Their distribution segment has grown since they introduced delivery, and their research to find the most successful delivery process, though using their own employees and network, has helped them grow in this …show more content…
As quoted by CEO, Ron Shaich, “Our strategic plan is working. Our comps [company-owned store sales growth] of 3.6% in Q4 2015 and 6.4% in the first 41 days of Q1 2016 are leading indicators of the impact our initiatives are having.”. This shows a positive growth and will hopefully help them make financial gains equivalent to what they previously had accomplished. Despite the decline Panera still seems to be performing well financially. Especially since they continued to grow during a time when many businesses suffered significant