Panera Bread 2006 Annual Report Download - page 11

COMPETITION
We experience competition from numerous sources in our trade areas. We compete with specialty food, casual
dining and quick service cafes, bakeries, and restaurant retailers including national, regional and locally-owned
cafes, bakeries, and restaurants. Our bakery-cafes compete based on customers’ needs for breakfast, lunch, PM
“chill-out,” dinner, and take home bread sales. The competitive factors include location, environment, customer
service, price, and quality of products. We compete for leased space in desirable locations. Certain of our
competitors may have capital resources exceeding those available to us. For further information on competition, see
“Item 1A. Risk Factors” in this Form 10-K.
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Each Company-owned bakery-cafe has computerized point-of-sale registers which collect transaction data
used to generate pertinent information, including, among other things, product mix and average check. All product
prices are programmed into the point-of-sale register from our headquarters office. We allow franchisees, that elect
to do so, access to certain of our proprietary bakery-cafe systems and systems support. Franchisees set their own
menu prices.
We use in-store Enterprise Application tools to assist in labor scheduling and food cost management, to
provide corporate and retail operations management quick access to retail data, to allow for on-line ordering with
distributors, and to reduce managers’ administrative time. The system supplies sales, bank deposit, and variance
data to our accounting department on a daily basis. We use this retail data to generate daily and weekly consolidated
reports regarding sales and other key metrics, as well as detailed profit and loss statements for each Company-
owned bakery-cafe. Additionally, we monitor the average check, customer count, product mix, and other sales
trends. We also use this retail data in our “exception-based reporting” tools to safeguard our cash, protect our assets,
and train our employees. The fresh dough facilities have computerized systems which allow the fresh dough
facilities to accept electronic orders from the bakery-cafes and deliver the ordered product back to the bakery-cafes.
We also use an eLearning system and Learning Tools website to provide on-line training for our retail associates and
on-line baking instructions for our bakers.
We have network/integration systems which are corporate office electronic systems and tools which link
various information subsystems and databases, encompassing e-mail and all major financial systems, such as
general ledger database systems, and all major operational systems, such as store operating performance database
systems. Most bakery-cafes also provide customers free Internet access provided through a managed WiFi network.
As a result, we host one of the largest free public WiFi networks in the country.
EMPLOYEES
As of December 26, 2006, we had approximately 7,200 full-time associates (defined as associates who
average 25 hours or more per week), of whom approximately 400 were employed in general or administrative
functions principally at or from our support centers or executive offices, approximately 900 were employed in our
fresh dough facility operations, and approximately 5,900 were employed in our bakery-cafe operations as bakers,
managers, and associates. We also had approximately 10,200 part-time hourly associates at the bakery-cafes at
December 26, 2006. We do not have any collective bargaining agreements with our employees and consider our
employee relations to be good. We place a priority on staffing our bakery-cafes, fresh dough facilities, and support
center operations with skilled associates and invest in training programs to ensure the quality of our operations.
PROPRIETARY RIGHTS
Our brand, intellectual property and our confidential and proprietary information are very important to our
business and competitive position. We protect these assets through a combination of trademark, copyright, trade
secret and unfair competition and contract law.
The Panera», Panera Bread», Saint Louis Bread Co.», Via Panera», Crispani», and Mother Bread design
trademarks are some of the trademarks that we have registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
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