Advantages Of Panera

The Panera Bread legacy started in 1981 as AuBon Pain Co., Inc. In May of 1999, all of the AuBon Pain Co., Inc.’s business units were sold, except for Panera Bread, thus the company was renamed Panera Bread (Panera). As of December 2015, there are 1,972 bakery-cafes in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and in Ontario Canada (Panera, n.d.). Today, Panera Bread has a market capitalization of $4.5 billion and continues to be on a journey to serve food, as it should be. They continue to strive on serving quality foods that are free of artificial ingredients and making sure customers have a great experience.

Panera targets consumers who seek meals of higher quality than they would find at the traditional fast food chain, but don’t have the time to dine in or have a sit-down meal at a restaurant. Though there are many other restaurants who offer this same combination, they tend to be local and do not benefit from a national brand name with a large advertising budget.

Panera Bread's mark item is new prepared artisan bread made with restricted fixings and no additives or chemicals. The menu gatherings were new prepared products, made-to-request sandwiches and plates of mixed greens, soups, light dishes, and bistro drinks. They also effectively competed in five submarkets of the nourishment far from home industry. Panera Bread uses its particular menu, signature bistro configuration, welcoming atmosphere, working frameworks, and unit area system to contend effectively. The submarkets that Panera contends in are breakfast, lunch, daytime, light night admission for take-out or eat in, and bring home bread. Panera's objective was to build feasting at different supper times: breakfast, lunch, daytime, and supper. Panera also improved their menu by keeping in mind their end goal to end up distinctly a broadly perceived brand name and to be the predominant eatery as well as a claim to fame while being a specialty bread shop. The menu improvements concentrated on pulling in clients amid the night feast hours and client

Expanding the target market of Panera Bread is a good growth opportunity for them. This can be achieved by product line (menu options) extension or by entering international market outside the American continent so as to increase their geographical coverage. In addition, Panera has an opportunity to get additional market and growth by adapting rapidly to changing market and customer preferences. They need to advertise and market themselves as a healthy option for eating out. Health oriented food or food that are low in calories, sugar, cholesterol, etc. is getting very important as people started becoming very health conscious and selective. Their effort to roll out new products with fresher ingredients such as antibiotic-free chicken needs to be further expanded. Recognizing the health risks associated with transfat, Panera had completely removed all transfat from its menu by 2006. Organic food, non GMO, etc. They could increase number of their franchises. A number of markets were still available for franchise development. The have opportunity in front of them to open more outlets, both company-owned and franchises. They could open within North America and mainly in areas where they are not present now, and those areas where the growth potential is good, like some of the suburban markets. Many good locations for fast casual dining options are available in many of the untapped areas. Panera has a good market opportunity outside the small urban niche where greater growth

Panera Bread has established itself as one of the most popular, fast growing “bakery-café” restaurants in the United States as well as in Canada. With 1,800 locations in 45 states, the franchise appears to be unstoppable. This in part is due to the superior customer service experience that keeps customers coming back time and time again. Just to give you an example, in 2012; the most recent year that data is available, Panera Bread brought in an astounding $2.13 billion in revenue, about $1 billion more than its revenue in 2008.

Panera has three business segments: Company-owned bakery-café, franchise operations and fresh dough operations. The company’s growth strategy was “to grow their store profits, to increase transactions and gross profits per transaction, use capital wisely and put into place drivers for concept differentiations and competitive advantage” (Vincelette & Fogarty, 2010, p7.). In 2009 while everyone else was experiencing the hard economic times Panera Bread was sticking to their strategic plan. Panera did not lay off employees, or worry about closing underperforming stores. Instead, they continued to add menu items and even increased prices on existing items. This strategy worked for them and they were able to take advantage of clientele that came from fine dining. The company has

The Panera Bread Company is starting 2007 with unfinished goals and missed targets previously set and a review of their strategy is in order to continue their ongoing success. The company has grown substantially since its inception in the competitive restaurant industry; however, an aggressive target of 2,000 Panera Bread bakery-cafes will require a focused strategic plan. The company has a strong base with loyal customers who appreciate Panera’s unique dining atmosphere with a focus on quality products at a reasonable price. Panera will need to continue its market research and focus on environmental issues, which are an important core value. The opportunity for

Panera’s strategy was called Concept Essence. In simple terms they wanted to be, “better than the guys across the street.” This included offering an appealing selection of breads, bagels and other handcrafted pastry products that were baked fresh daily at each location. They only serve high-quality foods at what they believe was a good value. They developed a menu that was offered diverse selections in an effort to draw customers from breakfast through dinner. Provide above quality customer service and to make sure their patrons enjoy a satisfying dining experience. Panera also sought to ensure that all of their locations were aesthetically soothing and inviting to potential patrons.

The rivalry among competing sellers, often the strongest competitive pressure, is also fairly high for Panera in the restaurant industry. No switching costs, numerous competitors, and an increase in the availability of healthy food

Panera’s Competitive strategy is based on differentiation and value as they provide their customers with a wide variety of products on different times of the day meanwhile they want their customers visiting Panera as being a good value.

Panera Bread is considered to be one of the U.S. most successful fast-casual restaurants. The company is one of the revolution makers in the industry of fast food, which managed to transform the traditional image and perception of to-go products that are available at an acceptable price on the market. As its initial founding company was established in 1981, Panera Bread managed to gain up to 4.5 billion USD in sales by the year of 2015, whereas the average sales per one store made up to 2.5 million USD annually (Thompson). Nevertheless, the company that once managed to upgrade bread and pastry into a trend of fast and healthy eating, today is struggling with massive competition on the fast food market. Its previous strategic strengths now became a burden that stops innovation and creativity and does not

Through an internal environment analysis, companies can identify and understand their own unique resources, capabilities, and competencies that are required for their sustainable competitive advantage. Resources, capabilities, and core competencies are the foundation of competitive advantage. There is no competitive advantages are permanently sustainable in any companies, so they have to consist on their current advantages and develop new advantages by internally understanding and analyzing their resources and capabilities. Competitors have their own unique resources, capabilities, and core competencies to create values for their customers. Both tangible and intangible resources, which include individual, social and organizational phenomena, are combined to generate capabilities. In turn, company’s capabilities are used to build core competencies. Also, core competencies are as a source of competitive advantage for a company to win in the competitive market.

Panera Bread has much strength within their business. In the beginning, Panera Bread recognized another company, Saint Louis Bread Company, to aid in strengthening their market standing and competitiveness by purchasing the company. Panera Bread further strengthened their company by redesigning the newly acquired company to have a more appealing dining experience, better quality, customer service, and wider product selection. After redesign was complete, the newly named Panera Bread recognized the new company design has a cash hog and made the wise decision to sell off

Panera Bread’s intention is “to make Panera Bread a nationally recognized brand name and to be the dominant restaurant operator in the specialty bakery-café segment.” Panera experienced competition from many numerous sources in its trade areas. Their competition was with specialty food, casual dining and quick service cafes, bakeries, and restaurant retailers, including national, regional, and locally owned. The competitive factors included location, environment, customer service, price, and quality of products. Panera learned from its competitors, none of its competitors had yet

Competitive advantage is that a company has better ability in earning profit and profit growth compared to its competitors for the same group of customers in one industry.