Panera Bread Company Ron Shaich and Louis Kane started Panera Bread in 1981 as Au Bon Pain Company. The company prospered internationally throughout 1980s and 1990s along the east coast of U.S.. It became the dominant and best operator within the bakery-cafe category. The company purchased St. Louis Bread Company, which was a chain twenty bakery-cafes in St. Louis area. After the purchase, St. Louis Company was re-staged and managed comprehensively.

2007). By identifying the demand for quickly available meals that were both more diverse and healthier than those offered by established fast food chains, the owners of the baking company that would be Panera showed early on their ability to innovate with the times, and in moving from simply baking to providing finished food products to consumers the company has been able to achieve an astounding amount of growth

. Panera Bread needs to move away from word-of-mouth advertising and embrace more effective means of advertising and awareness building strategies. Panera has relied largely on word-of-mouth communication of positive customer experiences to build awareness of the concept. Advertising spending (as a percent of bakery-caf? sales) has been relatively modest, including 2.2% in 2003, 2.1% in 2004, and 2.1% in 2005. Marketing efforts have been mostly focused on the use of in- store promotional signage (e.g., point-of-purchase

Weaknesses High levels of selling, general and administrative expenses - Despite the meteoric revenue growth as is shown in Appendix A, there continues to be the weakness of having high levels of SG&A expenses. For example, the company has at times experienced over 19% growth in these expenses, as was the case between 2000 and 2003. A lack of variety and reason to eat other meals besides breakfast at Panera Bread outlets

Company Economic Forecast: Panera Bread Explain the business you are in. Explain your business and the different industries that would impact your operation. One new eatery that is still in the process of expanding nation-wide as a franchise of note is that of Panera Bread. As an emerging business, it is an excellent business investment prospect, far from 'bottoming out' as older, more established coffee cup centered franchises such as Starbucks. Unlike

global branding of Stella Artois Porter's 5-forces analysis of the beer industry Bargaining power of buyers The bargaining power of buyers is very high in the beer industry. Consumers have many choices, spanning from other alcoholic beverages to other brands of beer, including smaller labels as well as the major brands. Also, beer is not strictly a necessity. Consumers can conceivably 'do without' if the price is too high. Bargaining power of suppliers The