Panera Bread 2013 Annual Report Download - page 14

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We use independent distributors to distribute our proprietary sweet goods products, and other materials to bakery-cafes. With the
exception of products supplied directly by the fresh dough facilities, virtually all other food products and supplies for our bakery-
cafes, including paper goods, coffee, and smallwares, are contracted by us and delivered by vendors to an independent distributor
for delivery to the bakery-cafes. We maintain a list of approved suppliers and distributors from which we and our franchisees
must select. We leverage our size and scale to improve the quality of our ingredients, improve purchasing efficiency, and negotiate
purchase agreements, which includes purchasing commodities under agreements with terms generally ranging from one month
to one year, usually at a fixed price, with most of our approved suppliers to achieve cost reduction for both us and our customers.
Management Information Systems
We believe technology is quickly becoming a differentiator in the restaurant business and we are committed to being a leader in
technology that makes a difference to our customers by providing a greater degree of access and convenience. We have made and
will continue to make substantial investments in technology designed to provide greater access for customers, increased operational
capabilities and improvement in core enterprise systems.
Each of our Company-owned bakery-cafes have programmed point-of-sale registers which collect transaction data used to generate
pertinent information, including, among other things, transaction counts, product mix, and average check. All Company-owned
bakery-cafe product prices are programmed into the point-of-sale registers from our support centers. We allow franchisees access
to certain of our proprietary bakery-cafe systems and systems support. Franchisees are responsible for providing the appropriate
menu prices, discount rates, and tax rates for system programming. Most bakery-cafes also provide customers free Internet access
through a managed WiFi network. As a result, we host one of the largest free public WiFi networks in the country.
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 on-line ordering with distributors, and to reduce managers’
administrative time, and are investing in enhanced back-of-house forecasting and labor scheduling systems to improve the
effectiveness of these capabilities. We use retail data to generate daily and weekly consolidated reports regarding sales and other
key metrics, as well as detailed profit and loss statements for our Company-owned bakery-cafes. Additionally, we monitor the
transaction counts, product mix, average check, 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 associates. Our fresh dough facilities have information
systems which accept electronic orders from our bakery-cafes and monitor delivery of the ordered product back to our bakery-
cafes. We also use proprietary on-line tools, such as eLearning, to provide on-line training for our retail and fresh dough facility
associates and on-line baking instructions for our bakers.
Competition
We compete with a variety of national, regional and locally-owned food service companies, including specialty food, casual dining
and quick-service restaurants, bakeries, and restaurant retailers. Our bakery-cafes compete in several segments of the restaurant
business: breakfast, lunch, gathering place, dinner, take home, and catering. We believe we are able to compete favorably against
other food service providers through our convenient bakery-cafe locations, appealing environment, high-quality food, beverages,
customer service, and marketing. 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 31, 2013, we had approximately 40,100 total associates of whom 22,700 work, on average, at least 25 hours per
week. Approximately 37,700 associates were employed in our bakery-cafe operations as bakers, managers, and associates,
approximately 1,300 were employed in our fresh dough facility operations, and approximately 1,100 were employed in general
or administrative functions, principally in our support centers. 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