Panera Bread History

The Au Bon Pain Company was founded in 1981 by Ron Shaich and Louis Kane. (“Panera Bread Company: Our History”, 2014) Au Bon Pain was a successful bakery-café company throughout the 1980s into the early 1990s. (“Panera Bread Company: Our History”, 2014) In 1993 Au Bon Pain purchased a bakery café company called the Saint Louis Bread Company. (“Panera Bread Company: Our History”, 2014) This newly purchased company consisted of 20 bakery-café locations in the area of St. Louis, Missouri. (“Panera Bread Company: Our History”, 2014) They completed a realignment of the Saint Louis Bread Company and it thrived between 1993 and 1997, increasing the unit volumes by 75%. (“Panera Bread Company: Our History”, 2014) In 1997 this new concept was renamed Panera Bread. (“Panera Bread Company: Our History”, 2014) …show more content…
(“Panera Bread Company: Our History”, 2014) But an undertaking of this size would take all of the company’s financial and management resources, so changes had to be made. (“Panera Bread Company: Our History”, 2014) Deciding to move forward with Panera Bread, all other business units of Au Bon Pain were sold and the company was renamed Panera Bread. (“Panera Bread Company: Our History”, 2014) This has proven over the years to be a very good decision as the company has grown tremendously to a current share in the market of $4.5 billion. (“Panera Bread Company: Our History”,