Panera Bread Takes On Breakfast To Eliminate Trade-Offs Between Morning Convenience And Quality

New Breakfast Wraps, Coffee Overhaul and Enhanced Digital Access Part of Renewed Strategy to Meet Marketplace Gap

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Apr 15, 2019, 09:01 ET

ST. LOUIS, April 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Breakfast is the most important meal of the day; yet mornings can be hectic, and the quickest option isn't always the best quality option. To usher in a new era of breakfast on the go, Panera is refreshing its offerings, focusing on new menu items and an elevated coffee platform to meet the untapped consumer demand for a convenient, yet high-quality, delicious breakfast.

To usher in a new era of breakfast on the go, Panera is refreshing its offerings, focusing on new menu items and an elevated coffee platform to meet the untapped consumer demand for a convenient, yet high-quality, delicious breakfast.

Many of today's fast breakfast options include frozen, microwaved food items that lack flavor or nutritional value; and made-to-order foods can often come with a wait time that impacts the morning commute. Panera's 100% clean breakfast options—including three new breakfast wraps—are seamlessly integrated with Panera's digital ordering platforms and Rapid Pick-Up® and Delivery services, providing both well-crafted, craveable breakfast foods and unparalleled convenience for the morning commute.

"Our focus on breakfast isn't just about a single item or category—it's about looking at the market and bridging a gap for guests. People are compromising between convenience and quality in the morning, and we know that's a problem Panera can help solve," said Blaine Hurst, Panera CEO. "Craveable, clean, high-quality menu options made easily accessible by digital and channel access is what has propelled our lunch business forward. Now we are taking that powerful combination to breakfast, giving our guest even more of what they want, when and where they want it."

On-the-Go Breakfast Menu Items & Elevated Coffee Experience

Panera has launched three new breakfast wraps, representing an entirely new category for Panera, designed to provide consumers with wholesome options ideal for on-the-go occasions. Packed with beloved breakfast flavors in a whole grain lavash wrap, the new breakfast category includes classic Maple Glazed Bacon with Scrambled Egg & Gouda Cheese; Chipotle Chicken with Scrambled Egg, Avocado and Peppadew peppers; and the vegetarian Mediterranean with Scrambled Egg White, roasted tomatoes, spinach and Feta cheese. All breakfast food and new coffee offerings are 100% clean, with no artificial preservatives, sweeteners, flavors, or colors from artificial sources as defined by our No No List.

Panera has also made a significant investment to upgrade its coffee – revamping and expanding its coffee offerings to meet the quality of its food and introducing new standards for brewing. With summer approaching, Panera has just introduced Cold Brew, a smoother, sweeter and bolder alternative to traditional iced coffee. While it can easily be consumed black, two new flavored options are made with vanilla sourced from Madagascar—the gold standard of vanillas: Madagascar Vanilla Cream Cold Brew and Madagascar Vanilla Almond Cold Brew, made with unsweetened almond milk.

Panera has also begun rolling out a new line of hot coffee, introducing new Light Roast and Dark Roast. Light Roast is a blend of Central and South American beans with hints of citrus, roasted nuts and chocolate. Dark Roast is a blend of Costa Rican and Colombian coffee beans that give this slightly sweet coffee a rich, mellow finish. The two new coffee blends are freshly ground from whole beans on premise and will be available in Panera bakery-cafes nationwide by late summer in a completely revamped coffee station, accompanied by the current Hazelnut and Decaf offerings.

For those who prefer sweet over savory for breakfast, Panera has also revamped its bakery line, offering 10 new bakery items, including Cheese and Cherry Brittanys, Almond and Chocolate Croissants, Cinnamon Crunch, Blueberry and Orange Scones, a Cocoa & Creme cookie, Brownie and a Vanilla Cinnamon Roll.

"We've long set the standard for an elevated morning experience from bagels to brioche breakfast sandwiches and craft bakery. But we recognize our guest is looking for new breakfast offerings for their busy lives," said Sara Burnett, Panera Vice President of Wellness and Food Policy. "By offering handcrafted breakfast options made with our real, fresh pantry ingredients and pairing them with coffee that matches the quality of the food in our cafes, our customers can get all their breakfast needs under one roof at their own pace."

Unmatched Digital Offerings Make Breakfast On-The-Go More Convenient

Already an industry-leading e-tailer, Panera continues to focus on technology to add speed and convenience critical to the breakfast timeframe. Its end-to-end digital pathways like Rapid Pick-Up and Catering make it easy to get breakfast on the go, and it is one of the few companies offering breakfast delivery via its own drivers. Now, the company offers a new Reorder function on the Panera app – allowing guests to select their daily breakfast in just a few clicks and have it waiting for them at the bakery-cafe via Rapid Pick-Up, or meet them at the office via delivery in participating bakery-cafes.

This May, Panera is conducting a market test on a new "Panera Tap" technology for hot coffee, where guests can skip the register or kiosk altogether. Guests in the Raleigh-Durham, NC market will only need to open the Panera app and tap an NFC smart poster to purchase a grab-and-go coffee via mobile payment.

To learn more, or to order Panera for breakfast, visit www.PaneraBread.com.

About Panera Bread
Thirty years ago, at a time when quick service meant low quality, Panera set out to challenge this expectation. We believed that food that was good and that you could feel good about, served in a warm and welcoming environment by people who cared, could bring out the best in all of us. To us, that is food as it should be and that is why we exist.

So we began with a simple commitment: to bake bread fresh every day in our bakery-cafes. No short cuts, just bakers with simple ingredients and hot ovens. Each night, any unsold bread and baked goods were shared with neighbors in need.

These traditions carry on today, as we have continued to find ways to be an ally for wellness to our guests. That means crafting a menu of soups, salads and sandwiches that we are proud to feed our families. Like poultry and pork raised without antibiotics on our salads and sandwiches. A commitment to transparency and options that empower our guests to eat the way they want. Seasonal flavors and whole grains. And a commitment to removing or not using artificial additives (preservatives, sweeteners, flavors, and colors from artificial sources on our No No list) in the food in our bakery-cafes. Why? Because we think that simpler is better and we believe in serving food as it should be. Because when you don't have to compromise to eat well, all that is left is the joy of eating.

We're also focused on improving quality and convenience. With investments in technology and operations, we now offer new ways to enjoy your Panera favorites – like mobile ordering and Rapid Pick-up® for to-go orders and delivery – all designed to make things easier for our guests.

As a result, Panera has been one of the most successful restaurant companies in history. What started as one 400-square-foot cookie store in Boston has grown into a company with more than 2,300 units, nearly $6 billion in system-wide sales, and over 100,000 associates.

In late 2017, Panera acquired Au Bon Pain Holding Co. Inc., parent company of the 304-unit Au Bon Pain bakery-café chain. The acquisition reunites Panera and Au Bon Pain, both of which were founded by Ron Shaich, and will intensify Panera's growth in new real estate channels, including hospitals, universities and transportation centers.

As of March 26, 2019, there were 2,130 bakery-cafes in 48 states and in Ontario, Canada, operating under the Panera Bread® or Saint Louis Bread Co.® names. For more information, visit panerabread.com or find us on Twitter (@panerabread), Facebook (facebook.com/panerabread) or Instagram (@panerabread).

SOURCE Panera Bread