How Panera Bread Navigated Covid, the Labor Market, Inflation and More
Panera Bread, a food service giant, made headlines after they announced the closing of their flagship bakery at West Loop in April, making way for a walk-in facility. This was one of the bold decisions that laid out their plans to make sure they would be well-positioned for as long as they could to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Today they have released their plans on how they will now position themselves to deal with the current challenges from COVID-19 and the economic downturn. Their new opening-date for the bakery is June 1st, 2020, meaning the company’s retail and e-commerce operations will remain open through at least the summer.
This is a tough day for many restaurant companies and it is not at all unusual that restaurant companies make decisions that will affect the overall bottom line. The restaurant industry has been struggling to adapt to the change of consumer buying practices and expectations when it comes to food delivery. Panera Bread made an aggressive move on April 13th to shift the menu mix and make their bread delivery the way it has always been with their signature toast and eggs and the other three types available are not part of their new delivery, breakfast sandwiches like their own signature breakfast with maple bacon or their signature English muffins.
With the move to discontinue their bakery service, their retail and online stores will still remain open at least through the summer. As it is, they have been providing a great service to their customers since they started. Today they have laid out a detailed plan and timeline for adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift in consumer buying habits. If it is successful, Panera Bread will be able to continue to support the people of Chicago and grow their business and brand and will be better positioned to support the growth of their brand in the coming months.
It also means that there are a lot of steps to take to make sure that they can maintain the quality of service and food that made them a great brand. This will take months of work but it will be time well-spent to position them for future growth.
Panera Bread has had an interesting week, one that has been full of change and upheaval. Most recently, on March 16th an announcement had been made about the company closing down