A Panera Bread signal hangs on the outside of the restaurant on July 25, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Photographs
When Panera Bread started shrinking its sandwiches and skimping on salads, it began shedding prospects.
Now, to win them again, the chain plans to reinvest within the enterprise and undo a lot of those self same cost-cutting measures, it stated Tuesday.
As soon as the No. 1 fast-casual model within the U.S., Panera has dipped to No. 3, ceding the highest spots to Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panda Categorical. Final yr, its gross sales fell 5% to $6.1 billion, based on Technomic estimates. For years, the chain’s site visitors has been shrinking, based on CEO Paul Carbone, who took the reins earlier this yr. Controversy after the chain’s foray into power drinks did not assist issues, both.
Panera’s troubles have coincided with a tricky yr for fast-casual eating places. Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Cava have all minimize their full-year forecasts as they see youthful shoppers consuming out much less incessantly.
Carbone has a plan to convey again prospects. Beneath the technique, named “Panera RISE,” the corporate goals to refresh its menu, give attention to worth, enhance its service and construct new eating places. He stated the plan has the backing of the franchisees who function roughly half of its 2,200 U.S. places, together with the assist of JAB Holding, the funding arm of the Reimann household that owns the corporate.
Panera’s slide has been poorly timed for JAB. The agency has been plotting an IPO for the chain’s dad or mum firm, Panera Manufacturers, which additionally owns Caribou Espresso and Einstein Bros. Bagels.
In 2021, 4 years after taking the chain personal, JAB struck a deal with Danny Meyer’s particular objective acquisition firm for a merger that may take the corporate public once more. However Panera scrapped these plans a yr later, citing market circumstances. In late 2023, the corporate confidentially filed for an preliminary public providing that also hasn’t occurred.
When requested concerning the standing of Panera’s IPO plans, Carbone informed CNBC that the chain’s administration crew is presently targeted on rising site visitors and implementing the Panera RISE technique.
Coming into the worth wars
Section one in all Panera’s plan is to enhance the standard of its meals, reversing cost-cutting measures imposed within the face of excessive inflation, based on Carbone.
“We squeezed meals prices. We squeezed labor,” he stated.
A few of these modifications occurred whereas Carbone was chief monetary officer. He now calls himself a “reformed CFO” — albeit one who nonetheless listens to earnings convention calls.
“It is actually about loss of life by a thousand paper cuts, it actually is,” Carbone stated concerning the chain’s downturn.
Take Panera’s salads, for instance. In the summertime of 2024, Panera started utilizing a mixture of half romaine, half iceberg lettuce to make its salads, saving the chain cash in contrast with when it was utilizing romaine alone. This summer season, it reverted again to completely romaine salads.
“You understand what company informed us? Nobody likes iceberg, and nobody will get that and says, ‘Oh my God, that white salad, it appears so appetizing,'” Carbone stated.
After which there’s the cherry tomato. Carbone stated Panera is without doubt one of the few restaurant chains that does not slice the bite-sized tomatoes in half, a choice made to avoid wasting on labor prices.
“We make the visitor chase the cherry tomato across the bowl,” he stated.
And when a salad comes with an avocado, prospects have to chop the halved fruit themselves, quite than it coming presliced. The chain will begin slicing the cherry tomatoes and avocados early subsequent yr.
Plus, Panera’s salads sometimes have 5 components, whereas these of opponents like Sweetgreen function as many as eight.
But it surely wasn’t simply salads that have been affected by the cost-cutting measures.
“In some situations, we shrunk parts, so company would stroll into our cafe to purchase a sandwich that has gone up considerably in value, with lower-quality components, in a smaller measurement,” Carbone stated.
The menu refresh may also embody new objects. Final month, the chain introduced that it’s testing new “fresca” and “power refresher” drinks.
Panera beforehand supplied extremely caffeinated power drinks, but it surely discontinued the road, which included Charged Lemonade, following two wrongful loss of life lawsuits and associated unfavorable publicity. Panera denied wrongdoing and settled the lawsuits earlier this yr.
In relation to worth, Panera is planning on leaning right into a barbell menu technique, providing prospects choices on each the low- and high-price finish. The strategy has labored notably effectively for casual-dining chains like Chili’s, however Panera does not have the identical appetizer choices as a full-service restaurant.
“We’ve not cracked the code but,” Carbone stated. “We’re doing a whole lot of testing.”
Chains throughout the restaurant trade have embraced worth choices, from McDonald’s Additional Worth Meal to Applebee’s “2 for $25” deal, igniting the so-called worth wars. Nevertheless, eating places need to steadiness the will to draw cash-strapped diners with sustaining their revenue margins.
To enhance the shopper expertise, Panera is planning to speculate extra into labor. Like many eating places, Panera lately scheduled fewer employees and relied extra on the self-order kiosks it pioneered within the trade. That strategy saved cash, however prospects typically walked into a restaurant and could not discover an worker in sight, based on Carbone.
Panera may also make investments again into its kiosks, which it hasn’t considerably upgraded since they first entered its eating places roughly a decade in the past. And its eating rooms will get a facelift, too.
If these modifications reach bringing again lapsed prospects, then Panera’s eating places will grow to be extra worthwhile, fueling future restaurant progress. And people new bakery-cafes might look totally different.
“What does the cafe of the long run appear to be? We’re doing a whole lot of work round that, we’ll check various things,” Carbone stated.
