Panera Bread is known for its wide variety of freshly baked breads, bagels, and pastries that are made available each day at its bakery-cafes. But how exactly does Panera get the bread that it serves in its over 2,000 locations across the United States and Canada? Here is an in-depth look at Panera’s unique bread-making process and supply chain.
The History of Panera Bread
Panera Bread started out in 1981 as the St. Louis Bread Company, founded by Ken Rosenthal. In the 1990s, the company began to expand across the Midwest under the leadership of Ron Shaich. In 1997, the St. Louis Bread Company was acquired by Au Bon Pain and rebranded as Panera Bread in 1999. Since then, Panera has grown rapidly and established itself as one of the largest fast casual restaurant chains in the U.S.
From the beginning, Panera differentiated itself by focusing on serving high-quality, freshly baked breads and sandwiches. While other fast food chains rely on frozen dough and par-baked breads, Panera bakes its breads daily from scratch in each location. This commitment to artisan bread-making has become a core part of Panera’s brand identity over the years.
Panera’s Supply Chain
To support its fresh bread production needs across thousands of locations, Panera has developed a specialized supply chain and network of commercial bakeries. There are three main facilities that produce and distribute Panera’s breads:
- Greenville, Texas Bakery – This 200,000 square foot facility opened in 2004 and serves locations in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. It produces up to 150,000 loaves of bread per day.
- South Bend Bakery – Located in Indiana, this bakery opened in 2010 and serves the midwest region with over 200,000 loaves per day.
- Lake Forest Bakery – The newest facility opened in 2021 in California to serve the western region of the U.S. It has a production capacity of 250,000 loaves per day.
In addition to these main facilities, Panera partners with 13 regional fresh dough facilities that supply bread products to bakery-cafes within a one-day delivery radius.
The Bread Making Process
While Panera’s commercial bakeries produce bread in large quantities, the process closely resembles the small-batch craft baking done in individual stores. Here are the key steps involved:
- Mixing – Each bread recipe starts with carefully measured ingredients like flour, water, sugar, yeast, etc. These are mixed together to form the dough.
- Proofing – The dough is left to rest and rise which allows the yeast to ferment and produce carbon dioxide gas. This proofing process is controlled in terms of temperature and humidity.
- Shaping – The proofed dough is hand-shaped into the required forms like boules, baguettes, rolls, etc.
- Scoring – Shallow cuts are made on the surface of shaped dough before baking to control rise.
- Baking – The shaped dough pieces are loaded into racks and then into ovens to be baked. The ovens inject steam at the beginning for extra rise.
- Cooling – Once baked, the bread loaves are cooled down before packaging.
All of Panera’s breads, including classics like Asiago Cheese, French Baguette, and Whole Grain Loaf, go through this careful production process. The facilities operate 16-18 hours per day to satisfy the huge bread demands from stores.
Distribution to Stores
The fresh bread products are distributed to Panera bakery-cafes up to five times per week via a network of trucks and distribution centers. Breads are shipped in special packaging to maintain freshness in transit and delivered to stores in ready-to-use pans. Each bakery-cafe goes through a “pull and pour” process where old bread is donated and new deliveries are freshly put onto shelves daily.
Panera closely monitors its inventory and distributes only enough bread to meet a store’s needs for a couple of days. This reduces waste while ensuring the highest freshness for customers. Any unsold bread at the store level gets donated to hunger relief organizations through Panera’s Day-End Dough-Nation program.
In-Store Bakeries
While Panera relies on its commercial bakeries to produce most breads and distribute them to stores, it still maintains small bakeries inside each location. These on-site bakeries allow stores to bake some artisan bread varieties and specialty baked goods fresh each day.
The in-store bakeries focus on making breads that require special handling like ciabatta, focaccia, and whole grain. Flatbreads, bagels, muffins, cookies, and pastries are also baked in-house. Having these bakeries enables each cafe to offer customers fresh-from-the-oven baked goods beyond just the delivered breads.
Quality Control
Maintaining consistent quality and freshness across hundreds of stores requires careful oversight. Panera employs dedicated quality assurance teams to ensure standards are met.
These teams audit facilities, processes, ingredients, and products on a regular basis. Breads are checked for criteria like correct weight, shape, color, texture, bake, etc. Ingredients are verified to be free of potential contaminants. Food safety and sanitation protocols are strictly followed in all bakeries. Any issues identified result in immediate corrective actions.
By investing in skilled craft bakers and robust quality control, Panera is able to provide customers with exceptional, bakery-fresh bread every single day.
Bread Making Equipment
Producing bread on such a large scale requires specialized high-output equipment. Here are some of the main equipment used in Panera bread manufacturing facilities:
Mixers
Large spiral mixers can mix up to 300 lbs of dough per batch. This allows for efficient production of bulk dough.
Dividers
Dividers evenly portion and divide large quantities of dough into loaf-size pieces.
Molders
Molders shape the divided dough pieces into loaves ready for proofing and baking.
Provers
Programmable provers allow dough to rest and rise under controlled temperature and humidity.
Ovens
Specialized ovens use convection heat, steam, and ventilation to achieve proper loaf rise and crust texture.
Slicers
High-speed slicers slice cooled bread loaves into uniform pieces prior to packaging.
Packagers
Bread is packaged into bags that protect and prolong freshness during transport to stores.
Food Safety
Given the perishable nature of breads and baked goods, food safety is a top priority for Panera. All facilities follow strict protocols and use tools like:
- Employee training in safe food handling and preparation
- Ingredient and product testing for contaminants
- Sanitation of equipment and work surfaces
- Pasteurization of egg ingredients
- HACCP monitoring for temperature, pH, moisture
By carefully controlling its facilities, ingredients, processes, and distribution, Panera is able to minimize food safety risks and deliver fresh, safe products to customers.
Sustainability Efforts
As part of its sustainability commitments, Panera tries to minimize waste across its bread production and distribution operations including:
- Using recycled materials for packaging
- Donating unsold bread inventory to hunger relief partners
- Reducing water usage for cleaning and baking
- Recycling 17 million pounds of dough annually into animal feed
The company is also working to increase energy efficiency in its bakeries and transportation. These initiatives help Panera lower its environmental impact as it scales up to serve growing customer demand nationwide.
Conclusion
In summary, Panera runs a complex, well-integrated bread supply chain encompassing multiple commercial bakeries, regional fresh dough facilities, distribution centers, and daily deliveries to stores. Loaves move from mixing bowls as raw ingredients to ovens for baking to shelves for customers to enjoy in less than 48 hours. Maintaining bread freshness and consistency across thousands of locations daily is no small feat but Panera continues to invest and innovate to deliver on its fresh baked bread promise to customers.