Panera Bread 2011 Annual Report Download - page 14

6
Competition
We compete with a variety of food service companies. Our bakery-cafes 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 in several segments of the restaurant business: breakfast, "AM chill”, lunch, "PM chill”, dinner, take
home, and catering. We believe we are able to compete favorably against other food service providers through our convenient
bakery-cafe locations, environment, food and beverage quality, customer service, and price. We also compete for leased space in
desirable locations. Some of our competitors are larger than we are and have substantially greater financial resources than we do.
For further information regarding competition, see Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Employees
As of December 27, 2011, we had approximately 18,000 full-time associates (defined as associates who average 25 hours or more
per week), of whom approximately 900 were employed in general or administrative functions, principally in our support centers,
approximately 1,300 were employed in our fresh dough facility operations, and approximately 15,800 were employed in our
bakery-cafe operations as bakers, managers, and associates. We also had approximately 14,600 part-time hourly associates at our
bakery-cafes as of December 27, 2011. We do not have any collective bargaining agreements with our associates and we 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, unfair competition, and contract
laws.
The Panera®, Panera Bread®, Saint Louis Bread Co.®, Panera Catering®, You Pick Two®, Paradise Bakery®, Paradise Bakery &
Café®, the Mother Bread® design, and MyPanera® trademarks are some of the trademarks we have registered with the United
States Patent and Trademark Office. In addition, we have filed to register other trademarks with the United States Patent and
Trademark Office. We have also registered some of our trademarks in a number of foreign countries. In addition, we have registered
and maintain numerous Internet domain names.
Corporate History and Additional Information
We are a Delaware corporation. Our principal offices are located at 3630 South Geyer Road, Suite 100, St. Louis, Missouri 63127
and our telephone number is [phone].
We were originally organized in March 1981 as a Massachusetts corporation under the name Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. and
reincorporated in Delaware in June 1988. In December 1993, we purchased Saint Louis Bread Company. In August 1998, we sold
our Au Bon Pain division and changed our name to Panera Bread Company.
We are subject to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act, and, accordingly, we file reports, proxy statements, and
other information with the SEC. Such reports, proxy statements, and other information are publicly available and can be read and
copied at the reference facilities maintained by the SEC at the Public Reference Room, 100 F Street, NE, Room 1580, Washington,
D.C. 20549. Information regarding the operation of the Public Reference Room may be obtained by calling the SEC at 1-800-
SEC-0330. The SEC maintains a web site (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other
information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.
Our Internet address is www.panerabread.com. We make available at this address, free of charge, nutritional information, press
releases, annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those
reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically
filing such material with, or furnishing it to, the SEC. In addition, we provide periodic investor relations updates and our corporate
governance materials at our Internet address.