Panera: Ron Shaich. The Big Bet That Changed Fast Food (2018)
Ron Shaich recounts his entrepreneurial journey from running a student convenience store and a Boston cookie shop to co-founding and scaling Au Bon Pain into a publicly traded bakery-cafe chain. He explains the pivotal, high-stakes decision to sell Au Bon Pain in order to pour all company resources into expanding Panera Bread into a national powerhouse. Shaich also reflects on using a contrarian strategy to expand aggressively during the 2008 recession and why he ultimately sold Panera to JAB Holding to escape Wall Street's short-term pressures.
- Ron Shaich discovered the fast-casual category by watching Au Bon Pain customers bring their own cold cuts into the store to make sandwiches with sliced baguettes. Read →
- Before 2008, restaurant chains borrowed money to buy back stock and sign expensive leases, but Panera preserved cash and refused to overpay. Read →
- Ron Shaich turned a 400-square-foot Boston cookie shop into controlling ownership of Au Bon Pain by solving an idle morning counter problem. Read →
- In 2017, Ron Shaich sold Panera Bread to JAB Holding and stepped down as CEO to escape Wall Street quarterly earnings pressure. Read →