Panera Bread 2014 Annual Report Download - page 14

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Concept and Strategy
Bread is our platform and the entry point to the Panera experience at our bakery-cafes. It is the symbol of Panera quality and a
reminder of Panera Warmth, a concept that reflects the totality of the experience our customer receives and can take home to share
with friends and family. We strive to offer a memorable experience with superior customer service. Our associates are passionate
about sharing their expertise and commitment with our customers. We strive to achieve what we call Concept Essence, our blueprint
for attracting and retaining our customers that we believe differentiates us from our competitors. Concept Essence begins with
artisan bread, quality products, and a warm, friendly, comfortable environment. It calls for each of our bakery-cafes to be a place
customers can trust to serve high-quality food. Bread is our passion, soul, and expertise, and serves as the platform that makes
all of our other food special.
We believe our competitive strengths include more than just great food and superior customer service. We are committed to
creating an ambiance in our bakery-cafes and a culture within Panera that is warm, inviting, and embracing, and focus our
investments on elevating this experience. We design each bakery-cafe to provide a distinctive environment, in many cases using
fixtures and materials complementary to the neighborhood location of the bakery-cafe as a way to engage customers. The distinctive
design and environment of our bakery-cafes are intended to offer an oasis from the rush of daily life, where our associates are
trained to greet our customers by name and have the skills, expertise, and personalities to make each visit a delight. Many of our
bakery-cafes incorporate the warmth of a fireplace and cozy seating areas or outdoor cafe seating, which facilitate the use of our
bakery-cafes as a gathering spot. Our bakery-cafes are designed to visually reinforce the distinctive difference between our bakery-
cafes and other bakery-cafes and restaurants. In addition, we believe that our MyPanera® loyalty program allows us to build
deeper relationships with our customers and entice them to return to our bakery-cafes.
Our menu, operating systems, design, and real estate strategy allow us to compete successfully in several segments of the restaurant
business: breakfast, lunch, gathering place, dinner, and take home, through both on-premise sales and off-premise Panera® Catering.
We compete with specialty food, casual dining, and quick-service restaurant retailers, including national, regional, and locally-
owned restaurants. Our competitors vary across different dayparts. We understand people choose restaurants depending on
individual food preferences, mood, and price. Our goal is to be the place worth crossing the street for to enjoy Panera food.
In addition to our in-bakery-cafe dining experience, we offer Panera Catering, a nation-wide catering service that provides breakfast
assortments, sandwiches, salads, soups, pasta dishes, drinks, and bakery items using the same high-quality, fresh ingredients
enjoyed in our bakery-cafes. Panera Catering is supported by a national sales infrastructure that includes an on-line ordering
system. To support our bakery-cafes in servicing small-, medium- and large-order catering markets, we operate catering-only
units, referred to as delivery hubs. As of December 30, 2014, there were 21 Company-owned and one franchise-operated delivery
hubs.
Menu
Our menu is designed to provide products our customers crave, built on the strength of our bakery expertise. We feature a menu
which includes proprietary items prepared with high-quality, fresh ingredients, including our fresh-from-the-field romaine lettuce
and tomatoes and our chicken raised without antibiotics, as well as unique recipes and toppings designed to provide appealing,
flavorful products. We include caloric information on menu boards in all of our Company-owned bakery-cafes. Our menu
embodies a comprehensive set of commitments formally articulated in our Food Policy and consistent with our long held values.
The Food Policy outlines our advocacy for a commitment to clean ingredients, a transparent menu to empower our guests to choose
how they want to eat, and a positive impact on the food system.
Our key menu groups are daily baked goods, including a variety of freshly baked bagels, breads, muffins, scones, rolls, and sweet
goods, made-to-order sandwiches on freshly baked breads, hearty, unique soups, freshly prepared and hand-tossed salads, pasta
dishes, and custom roasted coffees and cafe beverages, such as hot or cold espresso and cappuccino drinks and smoothies.
We regularly review and innovate our menu offerings to feature new taste profiles we believe our customers crave. Product rollouts
are integrated into periodic or seasonal menu rotations, referred to as “celebrations”. In our first celebration of 2014, we introduced
a Mediterranean Shrimp Couscous Salad, an all-natural Turkey Chili, Chicken Sorrentina Pasta, and a Low-Fat B-Green Power
Smoothie. The Triple Berry Scone and a new cinnamon raisin swirl bread were also added in our first celebration to help build
on the success of our bakery items. Our Chocolate Duet Cookie and Peach Pecan Crunch Muffin returned to our menu in the
second celebration. In our third celebration, we expanded our menu with the introduction of four flatbread sandwich varieties:
BBQ Chicken, Mediterranean Chicken, Southwestern Chicken, and Thai Chicken. Our popular seasonal Strawberry Poppyseed
Salad also returned to our menu in the third celebration along with the new Egg White, Avocado & Spinach Breakfast Power
Sandwich, the White Chocolate Raspberry Mini Cake, and Panera Branded Single Serve Coffee. In our fourth celebration, we
further expanded the flatbread sandwich menu with the Turkey Cranberry Flatbread Sandwich and also introduced the Butternut