In the early 1980s, Ron Shaich took over Au Bon Pain, a struggling group of Boston bakeries, and helped grow it into a national chain with 250 locations. But Ron saw an even bigger opportunity in a small bakery chain in St. Louis. So he made a remarkable gamble: he sold Au Bon Pain to focus entirely on what would become Panera Bread. That bet helped transform the way Americans eat—and turned Panera into a multibillion-dollar business.
What You’ll Learn
- How customers asking for sliced baguettes helped Ron discover a bigger business in sandwiches
- What he saw in a 19-store bakery chain with surprisingly low real estate costs
- Why Ron sold Au Bon Pain after building it into a national chain to concentrate on Panera
- How Panera used falling real estate and construction costs to expand during the Great Recession
- Why Ron believed staying on Wall Street could threaten the long-term bets that made Panera successful
