 | |
 Panera Bread inThe Villages, Florida | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Genre | Fast casual |
| Founded | St. Louis Bread Co.: 1987; 38 years ago (1987) Kirkwood, Missouri, U.S. Panera Bread: 1997; 28 years ago (1997) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Founder | St. Louis Bread Company: Ken Rosenthal and Linda Rosenthal Panera Bread: Louis Kane and Ronald M. Shaich |
| Headquarters | Fenton, Missouri, United States |
Number of locations |
|
Area served | |
Key people | Ronald M. Shaich – founder and chairman[1][2] Ken Rosenthal – founder of The St. Louis Bread Company Paul Carbone – CEO[1] (2025–present) Charles J. Chapman, III – executive VP and COO[1] Sue Morelli – president ofAu Bon Pain[1] |
| Products | Bakery-café serving several varieties of bread – |
| Revenue |  US$6.456 billion (2023)[3] |
 US$145 million (2016) | |
| Total assets | US$1.301 billion (2016) |
| Total equity | US$288 million (2016) |
Number of employees | About 140,000[4] |
| Parent | JAB Holding Company |
| Subsidiaries | Paradise Bakery & Café |
| Website | panerabread |
| Footnotes / references [5] | |
Panera Bread is an Americanchain of bakery-caféfast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States andCanada. Itsheadquarters are inSunset Hills, Missouri. The chain operates asSaint Louis Bread Company in theGreater St. Louis area, with over 100 locations.[6]
Panera offers a wide array of pastries and baked goods, such as bagels, brownies, cookies, croissants, muffins, and scones. These, along with Panera'sartisan breads, are typically baked by an on-staff baker the day before. Aside from the bakery section, Panera has a regular menu for dine-in or takeout including flatbreads, pizzas, warm grain bowls,panini, pasta, salads, sandwiches, side choices, and soups, as well as coffee,espresso drinks, frozen drinks, fruit smoothies,hot chocolate, iced drinks,lattes, lemonade, and tea.[7][8]
Panera Bread, formerly owned byAu Bon Pain, is currently owned byJAB Holding Company, which is, in turn, owned by the Reimann family of Germany.[9] Panera was once the largest provider of freeWi-Fi hotspots in the United States.[10]
Ken and Linda Rosenthal founded the St. Louis Bread Company in 1987 with the first location inKirkwood, Missouri. The Rosenthals invested $150,000 and received a $150,000Small Business Administration loan.[11]
Au Bon Pain Co., apublic company, purchased the St. Louis Bread Company in 1993 for $23 million.[12][13][14]
In 1997, Au Bon Pain changed the company name to Panera, from a word that has roots in the Latin word for "breadbasket" (Classicalpānārium,Vulgarpānāria) and is identical to the word for "breadbasket" inSpanish andCatalan. It kept its original name for locations in Missouri.[15][14] At the same time, the St. Louis Bread Company renovated its 20 bakery-cafés in the St. Louis area.[16][14]
In May 1999, Au Bon Pain Co. sold Au Bon Pain to the firmBruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. for $78 million to focus on the Panera Bread chain.[17][18]
In 2000, Panera Bread moved its headquarters toRichmond Heights, Missouri.[19]
In 2007, Panera Bread purchased a 51% stake inParadise Bakery & Café, aPhoenix metropolitan area-based concept with over 70 locations in 10 states, predominantly in the west and southwest, for $21.1 million.[20] The company purchased the balance of Paradise in June 2009.[16]
In October 2008, Panera Bread expanded intoCanada, opening locations inRichmond Hill,Thornhill,Oakville, andMississauga in theGreater Toronto Area.[21]
Aclass action lawsuit was filed against the company in February 2008, alleging it failed to disclose material adverse facts about the company's financial well-being, business relationships, and prospects.[22] In February 2011, Panera agreed to pay $5.75 million to shareholders while admitting no wrongdoing, settling the lawsuit.[23][24]
In November 2010, Panera Bread relocated its headquarters to Sunset Hills while vacating its Richmond Heights headquarters andBrentwood, Missouri offices.[25] The company leased additional space for its headquarters in 2013.[26]
In May 2014, Panera unveiled "Panera 2.0", a series of integrated technologies including new capabilities for digital ordering, payment, operations, and consumption. It includes tablet kiosks withiPads, which the company callsFast Lane, where customers may place an order and pay without approaching the counter.[27][28] Customers can also place orders and pay via an app on their smartphone or tablet.[29] In 2017, digital orders accounted for over $1 billion in orders or 26% of sales.[30][31]
The company introduced delivery services in May 2018, servicing 897 cities in 43 states and employing its own drivers.[32][33][34] According to the company, this created 13,000 jobs.[35]
Paradise Bakery & Café locations were rebranded in September 2015 as Panera Bread.[36]
In the fourth quarter of 2015, Panera acquired a majority stake inTatte Bakery & Cafe, a bakery-cafe concept chain with locations in theBoston area,[37][38] later opening in metroWashington D.C.[39]
On March 23, 2016, Panera opened its 2,000th location, a cafe inElyria, Ohio.[40]
In January 2017, Panera announced its food menu was free of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, andpreservatives.[41][9]
JAB Holding Company acquired the company on July 11, 2017, for $7.5 billion.[9]
On November 8, 2017, Panera announced that founderRon Shaich was stepping down as CEO, and company president Blaine Hurst would take over. Shaich remained chairman.[42] The company also announced the acquisition ofAu Bon Pain.[43][9][44][45]
Panera divested Tatte Bakery & Café to Act III Holdings, LLC, owned by Shaich in January 2018.[46]
In January 2018, the company formed a consulting business to help restaurants remove artificial ingredients from their menus.[47][48]
On April 2, 2018,Brian Krebs reported that the Panera Bread website had leaked between 7 million and 37 million customer records—including names, email, and physical addresses, customer loyalty account numbers, birthdays, and last four digits of the customers' credit card numbers—for at least eight months before the site was taken offline. Panera was notified privately about the vulnerability in August 2017 but failed to fix it until after it was disclosed publicly eight months later.[49][50][51] Panera said the leak affected fewer than 10,000 customers and had been fixed.[52]
On October 28, 2020, Panera announced they would add pizza to their menu to increase dinner options for customers.[53]
Panera announced on August 25, 2021, that it had merged withCaribou Coffee andEinstein Bros. Bagels to form Panera Brands.[54]
In August 2022, the company announced that it was testing the use ofartificial intelligence in its drive-thru lanes via two locations in upstate New York. It used OpenCity's voice ordering technology, Tori. At the time of the announcement, roughly 45% of the chain's locations have drive-thru lanes. In making this move, the firm was joining other firms in the restaurant industry, likeMcDonald's,Burger King, andTaco Bell, and it came on top of other uses of artificial intelligence at the chain.[55]
In September 2022, Panera announced that legacy St. Louis Bread Co. locations outsideSt. Louis City andSt. Louis County would be rebranded as Panera when remodeled, with locations in the inner core of themetro retaining the Bread Co. name.[56] One location in St. Louis County is named Panera as it is a prototype of the "Next Gen" restaurant design.[57]
In December 2023, it was learned that Panera Bread confidentially filed to go public again. The company was last publicly traded in 2017 before being acquired by JAB Holding for $7.5 billion.[58] On February 14, 2025, Ken Rosenthal, the founder of St. Louis Bread Company, died at age 81 due to complications from Alzheimer's disease.[59]
In March 2025, the company named Paul Carbone its new CEO.[60]
In 2010, the company's nonprofit foundation created Panera Cares, a "Pay what you can", pay it forward (PIF), and traditional charitable behavior[61] restaurant in its home market of St. Louis.[62] CEO Ron Shaich based the idea on anNBC profile of theSAME Cafe inDenver, Colorado.[63] It later expanded the concept toDearborn, Michigan;Portland, Oregon;Chicago; andBoston.[64][65] Several of their sites served 3,500 customers weekly.[66] The Panera Cares in Chicago shut down at the end of January 2015.[67] The Panera Cares in Portland, Oregon shut down at the end of June 2016. The original location near St. Louis closed in January 2018.[68] The last location in Boston closed on February 15, 2019.[69][70]
On November 5, 2015, Panera pledged that it would use onlycage-free eggs in all of its stores by 2020.[71] Panera also announced the addition of more plant-based proteins, such asedamame and organicquinoa, to its menu. At the time of the announcement, the company said it was 21% cage-free in the roughly 70 million eggs it used in 2015.[72] In December 2016, it published its third animal welfare progress report, announcing new efforts to improve broiler chicken welfare.[73] In 2021, Panera announced that it had transitioned to cage-free eggs for 65% of its egg supply but not yet the remaining 35%.[74]
Panera Bread has been the subject of increased scrutiny regarding itsanimal welfare policies, particularly its sourcing of pork, dairy, and seafood. According toReuters, internal documents revealed that the company has loosened its ingredient standards, allowing the use of some antibiotics in pork and turkey and permitting animal byproducts in cattle and chicken feed.[75] Despite growing industry commitments to higher welfare standards, Panera lacks a clear policy on eliminating these controversial practices. The company has been a target of public campaigns by animal advocacy organizations urging it to adopt stronger welfare commitments.[76]
Panera Bread includes a cool food pledge in its campaign to curb global warming. Though associated with high carbon emissions, meat consumption in the United States remains high.[77] Also, beef production accounts for about 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.[77] Panera Bread provides American consumers with dietary guidelines to help them change their eating patterns to help reduce carbon emissions. Through the Cool Foods pledge, the company uses traffic lights for different healthy and unhealthy foods. Foods labeled green are considered healthy, while those labeled yellow should be consumed in moderation. In 2015, Panera Bread also announced its policy against the use ofgenetically modified organisms (GMOs), making it the first food chain in the country to question the safety and environmental friendliness of these foods.[78]
The Day-End Dough-Nation program provides unsold bread and baked goods to local area hunger relief agencies and charities. Panera Bread bakery-cafes donate $100 million worth of unsold bread and baked goods annually to local organizations in need.[79] Panera also supports events held by nonprofit organizations serving those in need by donating a certificate or fresh bakery products.[80]
In 2009 and 2011, class action lawsuits were filed by former workers alleging that the company violated theCalifornia Labor Code, failed to payovertime, failed to provide meal and rest periods, failed to pay employees upon termination, and violated California'sUnfair Competition Law. Panera paid $5 million to settle all claims and denied any wrongdoing.[81][82]
In 2011, a former employee filed aracial discrimination lawsuit alleging that he was fired after repeatedly having a Black man work the cash register instead of putting him in a less visible location, and assigning "pretty young girls" as the cashiers, as requested by supervisors.[83][84] The plaintiff also said he was fired after requesting another month off after returning from three months ofsick leave.[83] Panera said that it "does not discriminate based on national origin, race or sex" and that the plaintiff "was terminated because he had used all of his medical leave and was unable to return to work".[83] The plaintiff worked in a store owned by franchisee Sam Covelli,[85] who also owns the stores that were involved in the 2003 racial discrimination lawsuit.[86][87] Covelli Enterprises is the single largest franchisee of Panera Bread with nearly 300 stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Florida.[88] The lawsuit was settled in June 2012.[89]
In 2016, a lawsuit was filed after an employee at aNatick, Massachusetts, store put peanut butter on a sandwich, despite being informed that the person receiving the sandwich had apeanut allergy. The plaintiffs charged the company and those employees involved withintentional infliction of emotional distress andnegligent infliction of emotional distress as well asassault andbattery.[90] The recipient of the sandwich was hospitalized briefly.[91]
In December 2017, former employees filed aclass action lawsuit against the company, claiming they were not paid overtime wages.[92]
In March 2019, Plaintiff Brianna Tabler in California filed a class action lawsuit, accusing Panera of false advertising and fraud. While Panera's former CEO Ron Schaich claimed that Panera's menus continue to be completely void of artificial flavors, sweeteners, and ingredients,[93] Tabler argues against the company's intentional redaction of the fact that their products contain traces of the synthetic biocideglyphosate.[94] In October 2019, JudgeLucy Koh granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Tabler filed an amended complaint in November 2019, to which Panera filed in January 2020 another motion to dismiss.[95] Tabler filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the complaint on July 30, 2020, closing the case.[96]
On September 10, 2022, 21-year-old Sarah Katz, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, purchased and consumed a "supercharged" lemonade drink from a Panera location in Philadelphia. Allegedly, Katz was unaware of the highcaffeine content of the drinks, which has been criticized as extremely dangerous; a 20-US-fluid-ounce (590 ml) Panera Charged Lemonade contained 260 mg of caffeine, equivalent to fourespresso shots, and the 30-ounce (890 mL) lemonade contained 390 mg (six espressos).[97][98][99] Katz suffered fromLong QT Type 1 Syndrome, a heart condition that can result in an irregular heartbeat in certain situations. On the same day, Katz went intocardiac arrest while at another restaurant and was transported to the Pennsylvania Presbyterian Hospital, where she suffered another arrest and was pronounced dead.[100]
In October 2023, Katz's parents sued Panera for thewrongful death of their daughter caused by misleading labeling and description of the drink.[100] Later in October, amid reports that dispensers had been moved behind the counter to limit access, Panera changed labeling for the drink, noting its caffeine content and need for moderation, and warning potentially sensitive consumers.[101]
In December 2023, a second individual was reported as having died after consuming Panera's Charged Lemonade. The individual, Dennis Brown, died at age 46 after reportedly consuming three servings of Charged Lemonade at a Panera location inFleming Island, Florida. Brown had high blood pressure, a developmental delay,attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a chromosomal disorder that caused a mild intellectual disability and blurry vision, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by family members.[102][103] Social media commentators began to nickname the drink "the lemonade that kills you".[104][105]
The caffeine content was later reduced by Panera in December 2023, with the 30-ounce drink reduced to 237 mg and the 20-ounce to 158 mg.[105] In May 2024, the company announced they would begin phasing out the drink.[106]
In February 2024, Panera settled aclass-action lawsuit for $2 million, which accused the company a year beforehand of misleading customers from 2020 to 2021 about its costs for delivery orders. Panera did not admit fault in the settlement.[107]
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In 2005, Panera ranked 37th onBloomberg BusinessWeek's list of "Hot Growth Companies", earning $38.6 million with a 42.9 percent increase in profits.[108][109]
In a 2008Health magazine study, Panera Bread was judged North America's healthiestfast casual restaurant.[110]
In 2009 and 2012,Zagat named Panera one of the most popular restaurants for eating on the go.[111]
Panera was also rated No. 1 for Best Healthy Option,[112] Best Salad,[111] and Best Facilities, among restaurants with fewer than 5,000 locations in 2009.[112]
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