Our History

Panera began in 1980 as a single, 400-square-foot cookie store in Boston, Massachusetts, and is now a leading restaurant brand with more than 2,300 bakery-cafes in the United States and Canada, 140,000 associates and annual systemwide sales in the billions.

Our success has been fueled by one thing: our unending desire to bring to life fresh ideas about living and eating well. We want our guests to know the joys of great food served by people who truly care. We want them to have the food they crave, when they want it, how they want it, where they want it. We have never stopped innovating to do just that.

In the early days, founder Ron Shaich, expanded his cookie business by partnering with the late Louis Kane in a small French bakery chain called Au Bon Pain. The pair soon discovered that croissants laden with upscale ingredients like Boursin cheese and fresh roast beef were crowd pleasers and the bakery became a bakery-cafe. In 1991, Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. became publicly traded and in following years opened hundreds of bakery-cafes in cities along the East Coast and overseas.

In 1993, Au Bon Pain acquired the St. Louis Bread Company, the brainchild of entrepreneur Ken Rosenthal. Ken had fallen in love with sourdough bread during a trip to San Francisco and, in 1987, opened his first bread bakery in his native St. Louis. The St. Louis Bread Company’s sourdough bread was wildly popular and Ron saw that the concept had the potential to be embraced nationwide.

In the mid-1990s, Ron and his team recognized that consumers were hungry for more than food at reasonable prices – they wanted an eating experience that made them feel good about their choices and themselves. They reconceived the St. Louis Bread Company concept and named it Panera, a combination of the Italian words for bread (pane) and time (era). Panera became a leader in the burgeoning fast-casual restaurant segment. In 1999, all Au Bon Pain divisions were sold to an investment firm so resources could be directed toward growing Panera. The remaining public company was renamed Panera Bread Company.

Our focus on elevating the guest experience intensified in the 2000s. We rolled out free WiFi and design touches like fireplaces that encouraged guests to linger. We set new industry standards for food quality, wellness and transparency by introducing chicken raised without antibiotics, eliminating all non-naturally occurring trans fats from our foods and voluntarily disclosing calories on our menus. By the end of the decade, Panera had nearly 1,500 bakery-cafes.

More recently, our team has turned its attention to the growing demand for more healthful craft food options available through a variety of convenient channels. Today, Panera is leading the industry in clean food, digital sales, loyalty, delivery and catering. We opened our 2,000th cafe in 2016 and we’re not slowing down.

Now privately held by JAB Holding Company, Panera is poised to continue innovating. We’re taking our fresh ideas about eating and living well to more people in more places. Our Panera At Home products can be found at select grocery stores nationwide and we are expanding into new territories with new formats.