Panera Bread Evaluation

Panera Bread Bakery and Café boast of its quality of food and market it as freshly baked breads prepared everyday. But with this kind of strategy involves a lot of spoilage, contributing to the high cost that the company is incurring. In the statement provided in the case, despite the increasing operating profit since 2001, the profit margin remains to be low.

A key aspect of Panera Bread’s business that protects the company from direct competition in the fast food industry is their product niche, artisan fast food. Fast food chains are often criticized for offering unhealthy foods. But, Panera Bread focuses on a higher nutritional value in their products. Dine in restaurants are very susceptible to drops in consumer spending, so Panera Bread’s

Panera is proficient in making good, quality products. Their financial position is strong; and they are known for quality products and great customer service. Panera is not trying to be the Wal-Mart, Starbucks or Microsoft. In a down economy, CEO Ron Shaich continues to target the 92% of Americans who still have jobs.

“Increasingly, companies are locating different value chain activities in different parts of the world to exploit location-based advantages that vary from country to country” (Gamble, Peteraf, Strickland, Thompson, 2014). Panera Bread extraordinary specialty showcase gives them the apparatuses they have to adequately manage the challenges standing up to the fast food industry and also additionally going up against the eat in industry. Panera Bread's less expensive items makes it more appealing contrasting option to conventional restaurants. Panera fabricated its organization on negligible long haul obligation. The greater part of their extension is financed with income from their operations. Besides quality control is kept up by making new batter every day at one of a few crisp mixture offices as well as the mixture is then transported day by day from the office to stores and heated new in the store. The normal length of each outing is 300 miles. The company also has solid brand

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 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

The generic competitive strategy that Panera best fits is broad differentiation. This is primarily because Panera sought to be the first choice for patrons looking for fresh-baked goods, a sandwich, soup, a salad or a beverage in a pleasing environment. In this platform Panera has set their eyes on people who may not necessarily be looking for an expensive meal, but might also not want cheap, fast food but instead are looking for a fresh meal that can be enjoyed in a relaxing environment. In this Panera is looking for a

Food and drink sales are expected to grow at around 3.5% in 2012. In addition to this, there is a rapid increase in demand for organic, fresh, and healthy food options and Panera is one of the best at offering this.

Being a nationally recognized brand and a dominant in restaurant operations in the specialty bakery café segment and to expand broadly in the regional market is Panera’s strategy. And by giving high quality product Panera is following their strategy.

Inventory turnover in days is an assistant figure of inventory turnover. The shorter of the days, the faster of the inventory turning to cash, and the better use of short-term capital. This figure of the firm was very high in 2001 and began to fell down from 2002,then lower than industry in 2004 and 2005.This indicates the management of the firm became better.

Panera Bread quadrupled revenues from $282,225,000 to $828,971,000 by 2006. Most of the revenue has come from their bakery-café sales. They also generate revenue from the sale of dough to their franchise locations as well as the franchise fees they charge to their franchisees. Panera Bread has been very profitable in part because they have avoided taking on large marketing endeavors and employ a long supply chain to get supplies from one franchise to another. Plus, with bulk or pooled purchasing of certain supplies, Panera Bread exercises bargaining power over suppliers. Their operating profit margin denotes the success they had in the early years of the operation such as in 2004. However, that margin slightly shrank over the next two years, 2005 and 2006.

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

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

In addition to seasonal items, Panera has answered its health conscious consumers' needs. They have introduced whole grain breads and switched to the use of natural, antibiotic-free chicken in all of its chicken-related sandwiches and salads. They also added light entrees to jump-start dinner appeal and egg soufflés to expand their breakfast offerings and help