au bon pain
find a au bon pain near you or see all au bon pain locations. view the au bon pain menu, read au bon pain reviews, and get au bon pain hours and directions .
pastry parlay: from au bon pain to panera - dec. 7, 2007
trying to find a au bon pain in the state of new york? have no fear; we’ve compiled a list of all the ny au bon pain locations .
au bon pain arrived in thailand july 1997, and the first au bon pain bakery café was opened at sinthorn building on wireless road. today, over 60 au bon pain cafés are in operation with plans for further expansions into urban and suburban areas .
au bon pain at otto' s cafe is located in the kern graduate building .
was not very enjoyable on the phone today or while visiting your au bon pain location. today just like every thursday i go into the boylston st. , au bon pain
1 au bon pain way (2, 691. 01 mi) boston, massachusetts 02115
au bon pain at zoller gallery, offering a limited menu, is located in the visual arts building .
simply click on the au bon pain location below to find out where it is located and if it received positive reviews .
au bon pain at the lewis katz law building, offering a limited menu, located off park avenue and bigler road .
despite the early hiccups, au bon pain took off. was there a single moment or a decision that sparked the company’s growth ?
- - - - - - ,
rising dough at au bon pain ,
inc. , may 1988, p. 14 .
taft appointed president of au bon pain division ,
nation' s restaurant news, november 11, 1996, p. 2 .
au bon pain inks deal to buy warburton bakeries ,
nation' s restaurant news, may 11, 1992, p. 3 .
baum, david ,
au bon pain gains quick access to sales data ,
infoworld, august 10, 1992, p. 46 .
mclaughlin, john ,
au bon pain is on a health kick ,
restaurant business, october 10, 1992, p. 36 .
principal subsidiaries: au bon pain foundation, inc. ; pain francais, inc. (75 %); saint louis bread company, inc. ; abp midwest manufacturing co. , inc .
glass, john ,
stock in au bon pain shows short appeal ,
boston business journal, september 2, 1991, p. 7 .
au bon pain acquires saint louis bread co. ,
nation' s restaurant news, november 22, 1993, pp. 1 - 2 .
au bon pain cools unit growth as it works on performance ,
nation' s restaurant news, january 1, 1996, p. 12 .
there are plenty of ways you could go wrong here, but au bon pain couples an extensive inventory of healthy items with an unrivaled standard of nutritional transparency .
in addition, au bon pain has released its new winter menu with an eye toward health - conscious ingredients. the menu will be available through march 1 .
i miss all the au bon pains in the boston area. it' s a go ...
so at that point, you were operating both au bon pain and panera, but today, you are only running the latter. when did that happen? and why ?
au bon pain at reese' s cafe, offering a limited menu, is located in the ist building in the central atrium bridge level of the three - story structure .
au bon pain was recently ranked first out of 100 nationwide restaurant chains by grellin, a website that uses publicly available data on restaurant food to determine which restaurants have the healthiest menus .
allen, robin lee ,
au bon pain pins hopes on new president, image ,
nation' s restaurant news, december 2, 1996, pp. 3 - 4 .
papernik, richard l. ,
au bon pain mulls remedies, pares back expansion plans ,
nation' s restaurant news, august 28, 1995, pp. 3 - 4 .
the nutrition information reflects the nutrition content of company operated cafes in the u. s. in some instances franchised cafes offer items that may vary either in nutritional content or allergen presence. please speak to your local au bon pain general manger if you have any questions about the items served in the café you are visiting. some items may not be available in all au bon pain cafés .
we stopped at bon pain for some croissants in the morning. service was not really friendly and the wait at the cashier took forever .
“for every hundred people who talk about building a national chain, one of them makes it, ” he recalls thinking back in the mid - ’90s, having built au bon pain into just such a chain .
kolb, patricia moore ,
au bon pain' s gamble pans out; as chains add bakeries, this one is already there ,
restaurant business, august 10, 1986, pp. 209 - 211 .
au bon pain believes in the careful selection of talented and entrepreneurial individuals. it is our firm belief that people are our most valuable resource. au bon pain co. , inc.' s success relies on team members who can make a major contribution to our company' s growth. in return, we are committed to providing an environment in which everyone can develop to their fullest potential. au bon pain supports a strong commitment to quality. this is the cornerstone of our corporate philosophy. the quality of our products and service will be second to none in the world. but, equally important, we want our commitment to quality to go beyond our products and encompass all of our business activities. au bon pain maintains a pledge to open communication. we strive to achieve open and meaningful dialogue between all team members. our pledge is demonstrated throughout the company by our
open door policy .
every employee is encouraged to meet with any level of management to resolve issues and plan career paths within the company. au bon pain believes that the company and its participants must all succeed together .
keegan, peter o. ,
louis i. kane & ronald m. shaich: au bon pain' s own dynamic duo ,
nation' s restaurant news, september 19, 1994, p. 172 .
au bon pain is focused on eating flavorfully in a balanced way ,
said maria feicht, au bon pain' s chief brand officer .
we offer healthy yet delicious choices for those watching their caloric intake. we' ve always been transparent about our calorie counts, which are posted in cafes. each ingredient is thoughtfully selected, turning sandwiches into comfort foods, soups into fresh and nutritiously dense meals and the occasional pastry into a deliciously indulgent splurge .
i miss all the au bon pains in the boston area. it' s a good thing there are a few near my work a ...
that year, shaich sold all au bon pain units except for panera cafes and renamed the company panera bread. since then, the company' s stock has grown exponentially, and today it has a market capitalization of $ 4. 5 billion .
au bon pain attacked its problems from several angles, implementing a reorganization program in 1995. the company hired several new top executives, added new products to the menu, reined in unit growth, remodeled existing stores, and emphasized international franchising. the management shuffle actually started in 1994, when ronald shaich became the sole chief executive officer. (sixty - three - year - old louis kane retained the title of co - chairman .) that same year, the company hired former burger king vice president samuel yong as president of au bon pain international, as well as new leaders of wholesale and operations. au bon pain created new divisional presidencies for both au bon pain and saint louis bread mid - decade, installing robert c. taft in the former and richard postle in the latter. with 21 years' experience in food service, taft had previously served as president and ceo of the papa gino' s chain of pizzerias, while postle had held top positions with wendy' s and checkers .
“when i see an opportunity like that, i try to take advantage, ” said shaich, who eventually sold au bon pain to commit his full attention and financial resources to panera. “panera was a huge opportunity, and i went for it. ”
it was a bold move, but it wasn' t easy .
the next few years of selling everything else off but panera were the most horrible years of my life ,
shaich recalls .
au bon pain was my first child .
notwithstanding their 1995 earnings setback and subsequent retrenchment, co - chairmen louis i. kane and ronald m. shaich predicted that au bon pain' s bakery cafe chains would more than triple to a combined total of 1, 000 units by the year 2005 .
i quickly realized i had 50, 000 people walking by the store every morning, but nobody bought cookies until around noon. so i became a licensee of this company called au bon pain, so they were essentially supplying me french pastries as a vendor .
in the 1980s, founder ron shaich merged his cookie store with a bakery, creating au bon pain co. inc. shortly thereafter, he and his late partner, louis kane, recognized the potential of transforming the company from a bakery selling croissants and bread to a bakery - cafe that used bread and croissants as a platform for selling upscale sandwiches. au bon pain co. inc. became a publicly traded company in 1991 and opened hundreds of bakery - cafes, becoming a familiar fixture in cities along the east coast and overseas .
au bon pain common made its debut june 6, 1991, with 1. 875 million new shares at $ 9 per share, rising to over $ 13 by that fall. the proceeds were used to fund a series of acquisitions that contributed to a near tripling of the size of the chain in the early 1990s. au bon pain had made two relatively small acquisitions in the late 1980s, including the two - unit cafe creations of philadelphia in 1987 and the washington, d. c. - based potomac foods' four - store le cafe chain .
au bon pain executives and industry analysts found a number of problem areas both within and beyond management control. following the
clustering
strategy that had worked so well for au bon pain, the parent company expanded its saint louis bread chain from 20 units in 1993 to 59 by the end of 1995. but instead of promoting brand awareness, this ambitious plan backfired, resulting in cannibalization without the hoped - for efficiencies. at the same time, comparable store sales began to stagnate, while food costs (especially for basics like flour, coffee, butter and lettuce) and personnel expenses rose. throw in increasing competition from the likes of seattle - based starbucks coffeehouses, and you had a recipe for disaster. having been named
gold chain 1994
by nation' s restaurant news, au bon pain suffered a $ 1. 6 million loss in 1995 .
au bon pain worked best in really dense marketplaces like boston, new york city, and washington, but we felt that growth was limited in smaller cities such as cleveland, indianapolis, and st. louis. we needed a concept that would work across america in a wide range of communities .
today, there are over 300 au bon pain cafés throughout the world. operating in the united states, including thailand and india. each café is situated in some of the most accessible corners of these cities, ranging from bustling business centers and well - known shopping complexes to hospitals and universities .
fortune - - ron shaich' s bakery empire started in 1980 with a 400 - square - foot store in boston called the cookie jar. over the course of three decades, the business merged with au bon pain, acquired st. louis bread co. , and eventually morphed into panera bread (
mediocrity rules. it' s an au bon pain. not quite as good as a panera and not as good as the dunkin donuts across the way for breakfast. had a breakfast sandwich and the eggs weren' t great, the bacon was thin and fatty and well, you get the idea .
that' s when ronald m. shaich (pronounced
shake
), a 20 - something fellow harvard mba graduate and native bostonian, entered the picture. shaich, who had set up and operated a non - profit convenience store as an undergraduate, was managing a cookie jar franchise in boston in 1981. in an effort to boost morning sales, he asked kane for permission to sell au bon pain' s breads in his cookie shop. after four months of observing shaich' s operational know - how, kane invited his young colleague to help overhaul au bon pain, which by this time was nearing bankruptcy .
these technological breakthroughs nearly halved overhead, bringing not only profitability but also freeing capital for growth. au bon pain resumed its wholesale business under the st. patisse brand. by 1985 the company' s more than 30 cafés in the northeast u. s. were generating an estimated $ 15 million in annual revenues .
kane and shaich were very particular when it came to site selection, placing au bon pain' s cafés, carts, and kiosks in high - traffic, upscale, urban office buildings and shopping centers like boston' s copley place, new york' s empire state building, and cleveland' s tower city center. airports, with their high concentration of hurried business travelers, comprised another ideal location. au bon pain
clustered
its metropolitan outlets, hoping that
saturation marketing
would promote brand identification as well as operating efficiencies. in 1989, nearly 40 percent of its 76 units were located in the boston area .
although they raised costs in the short term, the massive cash outlays represented by au bon pain' s acquisitions, computerization, bread plant, and international foray were logical investments in the company' s efficiency and competitiveness. and indeed, au bon pain performed well during this period, despite what shaich called
an extraordinarily difficult environment for the retail food industry .
revenues increased from $ 67. 9 million in 1991 to $ 182. 9 million in 1994, and net income multiplied from $ 2. 6 million to $ 7. 8 million during the same period. however, this apparently healthy bottom line belied several underlying difficulties .
located on the first floor of the hesburgh library, au bon pain serves the made - to - order sandwiches and salads, soup, coffee, and delicious fresh - baked treats that made them a popular national fast casual restaurant chain. their cooler is also stocked with grab and go items if you' re in a hurry !
by the mid - 1990s we were running the company as four divisions: au bon pain, international, manufacturing, and panera. meanwhile, the stock had been flat for three years. i realized panera was the gem, and it was buried. i knew i should sell everything else off and bet the whole thing on panera .
many thought shaich was crazy when, in 1999, he sold au bon pain to concentrate on developing panera (charts), its small bakery division. but today panera is the country' s 17th - largest food - service company, boasting some 1, 115 u. s. locations and annual revenue of $ 1. 9 billion .
the company was founded in 1976 by pavallier, a french manufacturer of baking equipment. established as a showcase for the foreign company' s ovens in boston' s historic faneuil hall marketplace, the au bon pain shop was staffed with french bakers who painstakingly produced authentic baked goods like flaky croissants, mouth - watering pastries, and crusty loaves of bread .
it was tiny, and i wanted more. to expand my offerings i became a licensee of a french bakery company, au bon pain, in late 1980 and put in french baked goods (like croissants) at the cookie jar in the morning. au bon pain had three stores, and the founder, louis kane, was trying to sell the business because it was under so much debt. i remember going to my dad, who was a cpa, and he said ,
ron, if you can get any of it, it' s not worth having, and if it' s worth having, you' re not going to get any of it .
but i wanted this desperately. so in 1981 the cookie jar and the three debt - laden au bon pains were combined into one company. my father and i got 60% of the company, and lou and his investors split the remaining 40% .
in 1998, ron determined that panera had the potential to be nationally dominant, but it would require all of our resources. as a result, in 1999 all of the au bon pain co. inc. divisions were sold, and the remaining company was renamed panera llc. we then focused all of our time, treasure and talent on growing panera .
you see, panera didn' t start out as panera. when shaich cofounded the company in 1981 with louis kane, it was called the au bon pain co. the chain of french cafes expanded steadily over the years, went public in 1991, and acquired other divisions, including the saint louis bread co. in 1993, which was later renamed panera .
around that time pepsi (charts, fortune 500), sara lee (charts, fortune 500), and several others all tried to acquire us. we resisted and took the company public in 1991. by this point au bon pain' s profits were growing about 30 percent annually. we had 250 stores and were opening about 50 new shops every 12 months .
initially, i went to my dad. i knew i had a small inheritance, and i asked him to give it to me early so i could invest it into that first cookie store. once i basically traded in that cookie store for au bon pain, we started accruing capital through our operations. it wasn’t until later that we brought in banks and venture capital .
perhaps most importantly, shaich sought to simplify the tedious and costly bread - making process. assembling a team of au bon pain' s french bakers, along with researchers from the massachusetts institute of technology and the american institute of baking, the company developed a method of forming and freezing the bread dough for later baking. this process promoted uniformity from shop to shop, allowed for more precise stock control, and eliminated the need to have a professional baker on staff at each unit. furthermore, by removing some equipment, it freed floor space previously devoted to production for seating, displays, and counters. specially designed ovens later brought virtually full automation to what had been a labor - intensive craft. in 1983, au bon pain centralized dough production at a boston facility .
i brought it to the board, and there was a huge disagreement. au bon pain was the namesake. we were selling it all to bet on the little one. it was a painful process. many of the people i had grown up with at the company were sold off with au bon pain. in 1999 we ended up with a public company with one division, panera, which had about 180 bakery - cafés and a pristine balance sheet with a bunch of cash. i got on a plane and moved my family to st. louis. we have come from a continuous process of smart bets like that one. take antibiotic - free, all - natural chicken. we had it before there was a market for it, so we had to build a manufacturing supply chain .
our problem was that we had been growing unit sales 20 percent a year for a decade, but at the size we had become, we couldn’t keep generating that type of growth. so instead of chasing that growth, i made the decision to simply let au bon pain expand at the rate it could, and i started talking to everyone i knew in the industry, looking for something new .
all au bon pain cafés provides a unique blend of fresh, nutritious and trans - fat free products that caters to customers of all tastes — ranging from breakfast bagels and all day sandwiches made from daily fresh baked bread, highest quality pastry, all natural soups and cool crisp salads, all complemented by delicious cold or hot beverages. these delightful offerings are matched by excellent service, warm and friendly atmosphere .
at the time, au bon pain was a boston pastry chain that was having problems expanding and had taken on a lot of debt. the business was founded in 1976 by a french oven manufacturer and later sold to a venture group headed by a man named louis kane. after i realized that people don' t buy cookies before noon, i decided to add french pastries to the cookie jar' s menu to attract a morning crowd .
kane assumed the title of chief executive officer with responsibility for site selection and financing. as president, shaich was in charge of internal operations. with additional help from shaich' s father, joseph p. , the new partners reorganized their tiny chain as au bon pain, inc. and developed a multifaceted plan to invigorate the stalling firm. in an effort to focus squarely on the core retail business, the partners discontinued the wholesale division .
but the very thing that had made au bon pain a success up until that point was the thing that limited it. it was a powerful niche business, working well in big cities. in 1993 i met with a couple of guys who had a 19 - store chain called st. louis bread co. , which was a lunchtime soup, salad, sandwich place. i was impressed. we knew how to take something from 50 to 1, 000, and it was the gateway to the suburban marketplace for au bon pain. we bought it for $ 23 million, and then didn' t change it. for two years we studied it. i was trying to figure out what was going on in consumer society. there had been a huge amount of consolidation in every industry. every shopping strip and mall was the same. in response there was a drive for specialness .
in the spring of 1978, businessman louis kane was strolling through boston' s historic faneuil hall marketplace when he noticed a display showcasing a new line of french bakery ovens. the aroma and quality of the fresh breads were enchanting. so enchanting in fact, it gave louis an idea. why not make wonderful, authentic fresh breads and croissants easily available to everyone in the city? from this chance encounter came the first ever au bon pain .
from top left, clockwise: panera ceo ron shaich, left, in front of the clark university general store in 1975; shaich, center, on the opening day of the cookie jar in boston in 1981; shaich at the grand opening of st. louis bread co. in clayton, mo. ; and shaich, left, with business partner louis kane when au bon pain went public in 1991. (photos courtesy of ron shaich )
( fsb magazine) - - he started college thinking he would end up working in politics. but after he was falsely accused of shoplifting and then kicked out of a convenience store while still a student, shaich launched a rival shop - and his business career. twenty years later, shaich made a name for himself as the owner of au bon pain, an east coast bakery chain he grew from three stores into a $ 200 million a year company .
so that’s what we did. selling au bon pain was like selling my first son, though. in retrospect, it was brilliant, but at the time, it was horrible. after a painful process, i ended up with just the panera business. it was still the same public company, the same legal entity we started with in 1981, just renamed panera bread, with one line and a lot of cash. and we went from there .
let' s face it au bon pain is a safe & reliable breakfast place. when in a hurry one morning, i opted to come here since i was in the same hotel. while they don' t have a lavish breakfast spread, they have the solid staples and is a good quick service option. bagels, hot sandwiches and sweets accompany coffee & hot chocolate. i had an egg & cheese croissant with a hot chocolate. made to order & delicous !
shocked because i have the expired muesli in my hand and i can take a picture and send it to you guys if needed. i will keep it here for that purpose because this is not ok this is the second purchase of museli i have brought from that au bon pain been expired. . thank god i was smart enough to smell this one before i consumed it unlike the other one. i really hope this issue is resolved because i do enjoy eating there on thursdays .
while investing large sums in unit growth via acquisition, au bon pain was also plowing capital into operations during the early 1990s. in 1992, the company completed its installation of a customized, chainwide computer network. the database management system processed and tracked sales, inventory, payroll, food costs, and average order amounts, among other factors, thereby enabling individual store managers as well as top corporate executives to monitor day - to - day operations. the construction of a new frozen dough plant in missouri was completed in 1996, but implementation of the facility was delayed until that fall. a catering department launched in 1991 grew from less than $ 1 million in revenues during its startup year to over $ 5. 5 million by the end of 1993. au bon pain also went international during this period with franchising of the french bakery cafe concept in chile late in 1992 and the addition of franchisees in thailand, the philippines, and indonesia by the end of 1995 .
by 1998, we have like 200 panera stores, but it’s christmas, i’m back on the beach and once again, i’m down. i realized that panera had so much potential, that it was touching a consumer chord, yet it was one of the smallest of our divisions in the au bon pain company. i was down because i knew it was never going to get the capital it needed, and more importantly, it wasn’t going to get the human capital it needed .
so i’m on the beach, and one of our executives called and asked me, “what would you do if panera owned au bon pain and all the other lines, not the other way around? ” i had never thought of it that way. but i knew if that was the case, i would sell everything, take all that capital, take myself and all our best people, and go down to st. louis and make this new business go. panera was the gem .
louis always said he remembered me as a kid walking into his office with flour on my shoes. i told him i wanted to buy his business (at that moment i had no idea how troubled his company was). louis was a real estate guy; he had no one running his place on a day - to - day basis. he saw me as a
concept guy
who could help turn the business around. so we merged au bon pain' s three locations with my cookie store .
however, they were going through their own problems. they had three stores, down from a peak of 13, and the business wasn’t working. once again, i saw an opportunity. one thing led to another, and i wound up merging my one cookie store with the three au bon pains in 1981 and taking a 60 percent interest in the company .
at au bon pain, we believe eating well is very important. what you eat should be nutritious and delicious... which is why we are working to provide the right balance for you. whether you want healthful dishes, refreshing drinks, nutrition packed snacks, complete meals, or from time to time, an indulgent treat, you can be sure your choice is flavorful and of the highest quality. to ensure smart, healthful, nutritious and innovative menu offerings and ingredients, we have assembled an expert culinary team experienced in quality and nutrition .
by 1993, i was feeling down. every year, i go away for christmas, usually to a beach somewhere, and i think about where i am and where i want to be in five years. that year, i started to realize that the things that had given us our success to that point were starting to limit us. by that, i mean that what made au bon pain successful was that it let my partner, louis kane, and me access all this phenomenal real estate in places like downtown d. c. and boston and chicago .
over the next three years i observed au bon pain' s shops and identified problem spots. many had to do with employees who just didn' t care. i remember walking into a store in faneuil hall and watching as a cashier put money from a sale into his pocket. i also fired about six bakers i caught doing cocaine in the middle of the night. after i let those guys go, they chased me in a car through the parking lot. it was a mess! it wasn' t about building a company back then - it was about survival .
the nutritional information is based on au bon pain' s standard recipes and individual items may differ depending on a number of variables including variations in size and portioning that are inevitable when items are made by hand. other factors that may cause actual nutritional values to differ include variations in serving sizes, preparation techniques, ingredient substitutions and changes in supply sources. because of this we can' t guarantee the nutrition content is precisely accurate. we base the values we publish on information provided to us by our suppliers and our own analysis using industry standard software, published resources and / or testing .
cafés featured black and white ceramic tile, brass fixtures, and soothing classical music. marble counters evoked images of handmade pastry. the 1, 000 to 3, 500 - square - foot cafés' dining rooms averaged 60 seats. in order to boost lunch time sales, the company added gourmet coffees and sandwiches like brie and ham on a croissant or tarragon chicken on a baguette. the corporate slogan ,
good food, served quickly ,
reflected au bon pain' s use of fresh, quality ingredients and its commitment to serve customers in under three minutes. by mid - decade, sandwiches and beverages were generating more revenues than the core baked goods .
in 1978, the concept caught the attention of louis i. kane, a venture capitalist who was involved with a columbo frozen yogurt franchise also located in the mall. that year, his family - owned kane financial corp. paid $ 1. 5 million for au bon pain and set out to turn the original concept upside - down, selling baked goods instead of ovens. the 40 - something harvard graduate likely realized that u. s. demand for french breads and pastries was on the rise. wholesale revenues in this category rose 40 percent from 1977 to 1982. by 1984, sales of loaves and croissants attained $ 1. 7 billion in u. s. sales .
we grew au bon pain into a 250 - store chain by paying close attention to our customers. one day in 1984, i was working behind the counter waiting on customers (which i still do today). a woman walked in and asked me to cut a baguette for a sandwich. then she pulled out a bag of lunch meat from the grocery store and threw it on my bread. you didn' t have to be a harvard mba to figure out that there was an opportunity in sandwiches. that same year, we expanded our menu and became one of the first companies to create an urban bakery, selling high - quality meat on fresh bread along with soup and salads .
lemonade. i was once an employee of au bon pan so i know for the most part how muesli should taste! i also know exactly how it’s made and knows that it made with fresh milk and not expired milk. this is the second time i have purchased muesli from the boylston street location and received a spoiled muesli. the first time which was about two weeks ago i actually consumed most of the muesli before i finally realize it had gone bad. being a little concerned i decided to call in the hotline to give a concern just so that they’re aware that their product is going bad in the store. i was told over the phone “ that the she knows products are fresh and they make them out every day” that was the case my product wouldn’t have been expired. when the manager told me that i was basically lying about what purchase completely
use the on - site nutritional kiosks to seek out one of dozens of paths to a sensible meal. or simply opt for one of the excellent soups or salads, or pair two smaller items from the all portions menu .
the grilled chicken is our kind of sandwich: substantial, flavorful, packed with 32 grams of protein, and just 480 calories. as for the newport turkey sandwich, when it comes to deli slices, turkey, ham, and roast beef all pack about the same amount of calories, fats, and protein per serving, which means when you’re looking for the healthiest option, it all comes down to bread and condiments .
all new for 2015! enjoy all your favorite foods—and watch the pounds disappear! click here to buy the new eat this, not that! book, the authoritative guide to all your favorite restaurant and supermarket foods .
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how we got started: panera' s ron shaich - jul. 18, 2012
). in the past five years panera' s stock has returned 243% , making it the second - best - performing u. s. restaurant after chipotle (
). shaich (pronounced
shake
), 58, had a big 2012: panera, with $ 1. 8 billion in revenue and $ 3. 4 billion in systemwide sales, including franchisees ,
and in february opened its first restaurant in the big apple. shaich' s story :
as a kid in livingston, n. j. , i had no real interest in business. i always thought i wanted to do something in government or social policy. i worked for congressman frank thompson jr. and on campaigns in washington, and then went off to clark university in worcester, mass .
my sophomore year i was at a local convenience store with some friends. they really didn' t want students there, and we were tossed out for supposedly shoplifting. i said to a friend ,
the heck with these guys. why don' t we open our own store ?
i had been elected treasurer of the student body, and i thought we could raise the money. we opened the beginning of my junior year, and i ran it. it was the most wonderful thing i ever did. for someone who can' t dance or sing, it was the closest i ever came to being an artist .
the student store became an institution at clark. i started speaking around the country about student government opening their own stores, and people kept telling me i could probably get into harvard business school, so in 1977 i applied and got in .
after i graduated, i went to work in ohio for the original cookie co. , a small chain of stores run by cole national. [ it merged with mrs. fields cookies in the 1990s. ] i had this idea of opening urban cookie stores and was tempted to go out on my own. i came back to boston, but no one would lease me any space. i ended up going to work for a democratic political consultant. i was there a year when a little jewelry store that had two locations in the same block agreed to sublease me 400 square feet. in august 1980, i opened the cookie jar. i thought i' d go up one day a week to the store and back to d. c. to run campaigns. one day very quickly became three, which became four. this was mine, and somehow it felt completely different .
by 1984 i was worried because the french baked goods we sold at our half - a - dozen stores were becoming pedestrianized. we decided to use the croissant and bread as a platform to sell soups, salads, and sandwiches. we opened our first french bakery - café in boston' s copley place, and by 1991, the year morgan stanley took us public, we had 125 stores .
we began to conceptualize st. louis bread as a gathering - place business. we created a new physical environment for the café. we started rolling out bagels, breakfast, and a take - home - bread business. in 1998, as we built out st. louis bread, we made the decision to change the name to panera, a word that has roots in
breadbasket
in latin .
a few years ago i started thinking about how i wanted to have another experience in my life. i wanted to know what it felt like without panera. in 2010 i handed off the ceo job to bill moreton, whom i worked with for 10 years. the idea was i' d spend two to three days a week on panera on the creative stuff. i' d have time to look into my other interests, like politics .
it took me four weeks to realize my continued intellectual interest in panera. i was liberated to create much more value than i ever could in the existing role of ceo when i was freed from day - to - day details. bill got it, but we spent hours talking before deciding i would come back as co - ceo. he could have said ,
i signed on as ceo. i don' t need the founder back .
and i could have said ,
i' m the largest individual shareholder - - i don' t need to be co - ceo .
it worked because we both want the same thing for panera. now i' m focused on all things that create value through how we compete - - marketing, food. bill covers all things related to how we operate .
one of the first projects i launched after stepping down as ceo was panera cares. panera has always had a commitment to community. we give $ 100 million a year in cash and product, but i got this feeling that it was disconnected from us. one day i' m watching nbc news, and it' s the height of the recession. i hear about a pay - what - you - can café in denver. they spent years trying to get this thing open. we open a café every 75 hours. we decided to do the full panera experience, open a bakery - café identical to any other panera, and list a suggested donation. we opened our first panera cares café in 2010, and just opened our fourth. they' ll serve about 1 million people this year .
these days i spend a lot of time thinking about how i' d compete with panera if i weren' t panera. much of our competitive differentiation will stem from what technology can enable for our customers. we' re going to bring that to market. i' m looking at things we didn' t get done at panera my first time around as ceo. i' ve got a shot to get them done now. ?
look beyond the shareholder. we' re involved in the conscious - capitalism movement, which is based on this idea that the worst thing that ever happened in corporate america is this obsession with shareholder value. it' s a narrow definition of success and is actually dysfunctional. profit and stock price are not things i can make. they' re a byproduct of delivering for all of my constituencies .
it' s okay to think small. this idea that you have this broad strategy is not always right. see opportunities to make a difference, and that will bring new things down the road. i' m quite convinced that steve jobs didn' t know he would end up with the ipad when he did the ipod .
don' t obsess over the numbers. when i was a young person, i used to be worried about the p & l, and then i realized that what drives the key p & l is getting the right stuff done right - - the key initiatives. that' s where i began to focus most of my time .
focus on creating the future. the future doesn' t just happen to me. i have to figure out where that organization is going. businesses are increasingly thinking short term. it' s a competitive disadvantage. the important things play out over years, not quarters .
freshii vice president of marketing melissa gallagher gives the acceptance speech on behalf of freshii, which took the top spot on the 2018 fast casual top 100 movers & shakers list .
the 2018 fast casual top 100 movers & shakers publication is now available for free download .
the fast casual top 100 movers & shakers honors the top 75 brands and 25 executives in the fast casual industry .
turkey sausage & egg white flatbread—egg whites, turkey sausage, spinach and sharp cheddar cheese served onwhole - grain flatbread .
banana & greek yogurt parfait—greek nonfat vanilla yogurt over honey - glazed bananas served with a side of toasted granola .
turkey & poached baby pear salad—all - natural turkey, goat cheese, honey - roasted pecans, poached pears served on mixed salad greens with balsamic vinaigrette blend .
12 veggie soup—diced tomatoes, potatoes, summer squash, zucchini, carrots, peas, onions, broccoli, corn, celery, mushrooms and red bell peppers in a vegetable broth .
waldorf turkey wrap—all - natural turkey, apples, cranberries and walnuts mixed with mayo, cheddar and romaine with maple - walnut dressing in a whole - wheat wrap .
hot and iced caffe milano—espresso, chocolate and hazelnut topped with frothed milk and cocoa .
chocolate chip cookie—featuring chocolate chips, butter and madagascar bourbon vanilla. on jan. 13, the cookie will be offered for free from 2 pm to 5 pm, followed by a sale of $ 1 per cookie from jan. 14 until jan. 29 .
lemon crumble bar—all - natural lemon filling on shortbread crust and topped with streusel .
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how panera bread founder ron shaich sold his first business to build his second .
former staffers at the culinary institute of america helped create panera' a daily bread menu .
shaich met with fsb at one of his bakery shops near the company' s headquarters in needham, mass. after busing a few tables he talked about his journey from that first general store to the top of the food chain. this is his story :
my first interest in life after high school was politics. i worked on george mcgovern' s campaign in 1972 and majored in political science at clark university in worcester, mass. then during my sophomore year i was unjustly accused of shoplifting and got kicked out of a worcester convenience store. to fight back, i opened a rival shop nearby on campus, and it became quite successful. everyone said i should go to business school, so i went .
two years after i earned my mba, i took a job working for a chain in boston called the original cookie co. i wanted to open a store downtown, but the company preferred suburban mall locations .
one thing led to another, and i decided to quit and open my own cookie place, with a goal of creating the kind of company i had always wanted to work for .
i requested a third of my inheritance from my father. that way, if my idea didn' t work, i' d still have two - thirds left over to try again. my father, who was a cpa, thought i was nuts but gave me $ 75, 000. i combined his money with $ 25, 000 in personal savings and opened the cookie jar in downtown boston. i ended up subletting a store from a jewelry store owner who wanted to consolidate his two locations .
i' ll never forget that first day: our doors opened at noon, and i had two employees. i can' t remember ever working that hard. i was the baker, mixer, chief salesman. i think we made $ 400. the first six months were stable, and i was making a nice living, but i wasn' t satisfied. a business is like a sculpture: it' s about creating something that' s three - dimensional. and i wanted more dimensions .
i also made efforts to retain the good employees. i wanted to take care of the folks who cared about my business. one night when i was on a date in that same faneuil hall location, i discovered the assistant manager' s wife washing dishes because the store didn' t have enough personnel to handle cleanup. so for about two hours my date and i helped clean dishes. the girl on the date is long forgotten, but that assistant manager is now a panera executive.
au bon pain ( [ o bɔ̃ pɛ̃ ] , meaning " at ( or to ) the good bread " ) is an american fast-casual bakery and café chain headquartered in boston , massachusetts . in 1977 , louis rapuano founded au bon pain in boston 's faneuil hall . since its inception , the chain has expanded throughout the united states . additionally , there are numerous franchise locations internationally in india and thailand . 
au bon pain ([ o bɔ̃ pɛ̃ ], meaning " at (or to) the good bread ") is an american fast-casual bakery and café chain headquartered in boston, massachusetts. in 1977, louis rapuano founded au bon pain in boston's faneuil hall. since its inception, the chain has expanded throughout the united states. additionally, there are numerous franchise locations internationally in india and thailand.
au bon pain ([ o bɔ̃ pɛ̃ ], meaning " at (or to) the good bread ") is an american fast-casual bakery and café chain headquartered in boston, massachusetts. in 1977, louis rapuano founded au bon pain in boston's faneuil hall. since its inception, the chain has expanded throughout the united states. additionally, there are numerous franchise locations internationally in india and thailand.