Panera Bread Strengths

Panera Bread is a symbol of warmth and welcome and they believe that food should be so good that you should feel good about eating it. Thirty years ago Louis Kane and Ron Shaich began a simple commitment: to bake fresh bread from fresh dough in their bakery-cafes, taking no short cuts, just bakers with simple ingredients and hot ovens (Panera Bread, Media, n.d.).

A key aspect of Panera Bread’s business that protects the company from direct competition in the fast food industry is their product niche, artisan fast food. Fast food chains are often criticized for offering unhealthy foods. But, Panera Bread focuses on a higher nutritional value in their products. Dine in restaurants are very susceptible to drops in consumer spending, so Panera Bread’s

“A loaf of bread in every arm” is the mission statement of Panera Bread Company (Vincelette & Fogarty, 2010, p.1). Panera started as a small bakery under the name Au Bon Pain and grew to one of the largest fast food service companies in the U.S. In 2008 they had the 5th overall rating in the restaurant industry. “Panera Bread is widely recognized for driving the nationwide trend for specialty breads” (Panera Bread, 2011).

“SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. By definition, Strengths (S) and Weaknesses (W) are considered to be internal factors over which you have some measure of control. Also, by definition, Opportunities (O) and Threats (T) are considered to be external factors over which you have essentially no control. SWOT Analysis is the most renowned tool for audit and analysis of the overall strategic position of the business and its environment. Its key purpose to

In order to know how Panera can benefit and grow in the coming years and increase market share moving forward, an analysis of their business gives an idea of where they 've been, where they are, and where they want to be. By analyzing their past performance we are able to determine their situation moving forward. In this analysis we will identify what external factors have and will continue to influence Panera, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as they pertain to Panera, key decisions that need to be made in order to overcome their slowdown, explore any alternatives that may provide benefit, and our recommendations for Panera Bread Company today to capitalize on their successes as well as improve from their failures.

An identification of the key elements of the company’s strategy Panera Bread company has had many strategies that they use to stay a profitable and which evolve and change every passing year. These profound strategies help them create an identity in the market that will allow them to continue to be the leaders in their domain of the fast casual restaurant industry. Panera Bread company has come a long way and starting from their 5 point strategies in 2009 that included market penetration, market development, product development, targeting the niche market and forward integration to their “pay-as-you-wish” restaurants which is also called Panera cares. (Panera Bread Company, 2009) In their recent shareholder report claim to work on key strategies to improve their competitive position, to expand their growth

Being a nationally recognized brand and a dominant in restaurant operations in the specialty bakery café segment and to expand broadly in the regional market is Panera’s strategy. And by giving high quality product Panera is following their strategy.

Product Strategy – Panera Bread’s menu allows them to compete successfully in five submarkets: breakfast, lunch, daytime “chill-out”, light evening and take-home bread.

Panera’s main competitors include McDonald’s, Starbucks Coffee and Subway. However there are hundreds of restaurants that compete with Panera on a national, regional, and local level that has a negative impact on the company’s revenue and market share (Panera). offer an atmosphere that invites patrons to stay for awhile with comfortable chairs, calming music and Wi-Fi. In order to gain a competitive advantage over Starbucks in terms of the atmosphere, Panera introduced meeting rooms at many of its locations To stay profitable in the highly competitive restaurant industry, Panera regularly reviews and revises their menu “to sustain the interest of regular customers, satisfy changing customer preferences, and be responsive to various seasons of the year” (Thompson). Panera develops an advantage in changing their menu over competitors such as McDonald’s and Subway who do not change their menu frequently and customers often lose interest in their menu

In order to meet financial objective of 15 to 20 percent we recommend taking these steps to capitalize on catering.  With the help of the key success factors, driving forces, dominant economic characteristics, SWOT analysis and weighted competitive strength analysis, we provide realistic recommendations for Panera.

It is a widely used technique where managers create a quick overview of a company’s strategic situation. The basic premise behind SWOT analysis is that an effective strategy derives from a sound “fit” between a firm’s internal strengths and weaknesses and its external situation. The idea is to leverage the company’s strengths in light of the opportunities and minimize its weaknesses and threats. SWOT analysis is an integral part of the strategic management process because strategy is derived after a sound analysis of the firm’s

Some opportunities for Panera Bread include control over its opportunity cost, further market expansion, entering international markets, new demand for organic products, well adaption to customer’s preferences as they change, and a drive-thru or to –go

The strengths of a company are the qualities that enable them to accomplish their mission. According to walmartstores.com Wal-mart strives to help people save money so that they can live better. Wal-Mart is known as a powerful

SWOT analysis is a useful tool for understanding and decision-making for all sorts of situations in business and organization. SWOT analysis can be classified into internal and external factors affecting a company. The Strengths and Weaknesses of the SWOT analysis represent the internal factors that influence the viability of the company. While the Opportunities and Threats, on the other hand, are the external factors that may affect the company's performances. A SWOT analysis provides more understanding of the organization in relation to its internal and external environment so that manager can formulate better strategy in pursuit of its mission.

In addition to the strengths outlined above, we have also identified several weaknesses that the company must overcome to be successful. Our key weaknesses are: