Panera Bread announced another round of layoffs to its corporate employees Tuesday morning, though it鈥檚 unclear how many workers will be impacted.
In an internal memo obtained by the Post-Dispatch, CEO Jos茅 Due帽as said the restructuring will 鈥渞emove silos and simplify leadership reporting lines to make faster decisions and drive more consistent execution.鈥
鈥淲e have made some difficult decisions to reshape the structure of our support center teams, which includes reducing and reassigning some roles across the organization,鈥 the memo reads. The memo did not include how many workers will be laid off or where they are located.
This is a continuation of the brand鈥檚 plan to empower general managers, simplify the operating model and deliver a better guest experience, Due帽as said in the memo.
Due帽as was appointed CEO last year as the company prepared for an initial public offering of its stock.
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A Panera spokesperson confirmed the layoffs and added that laid off employees will see severance pay, pay for PTO, healthcare support and career services. No in-caf茅 or franchisee employees will be impacted.
Last fall, Panera Bread laid off about 300 corporate workers, roughly 17% of its 1,800-person corporate workforce, as part of its restructuring efforts.
Earlier this year, the caf茅-chain launched a new menu in what the company called its 鈥溾 in the brand鈥檚 history. The menu includes new salads and sandwiches and enhanced classics at lower prices.
In 2022, Panera Bread said it had 650 employees at its 最新杏吧原创 headquarters. Last year, it relocated from Sunset Hills to Maritz鈥 campus off of Interstate 44 and South Highway Drive in Fenton.
While some of the new bakery-caf茅 locations around 最新杏吧原创 appear under the Panera banner, many continue to operate as 最新杏吧原创 Bread Co. Panera Bread is one of the three divisions under the Panera Brands umbrella, which includes Einstein Bros. Bagels and Caribou Coffee.
The first 最新杏吧原创 Bread Co. store opened in 1987 in Kirkwood by Ken and Linda Rosenthal.
In 1993, the company was sold to the publicly traded Au Bon Pain Co.
That same decade, the merged company sold its Au Bon Pain division, moved its headquarters to 最新杏吧原创 and renamed itself Panera Bread Co.
In 2017, JAB Holdings, a Luxembourg-based private equity group, bought Panera for $7.5 billion and paid out shareholders to make it a private company again.
In 2021, Panera Bread merged with Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels, two other JAB Holdings companies, to form Panera Brands. That November, the company announced plans to file for an initial public offering in partnership with 最新杏吧原创 native and Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer.
In June of 2022, Panera Brands said that they would not go public then due to a faltering IPO market.
The company didn鈥檛 respond to a request for a timeline of its plans to go public.
As of August, there are 2,172 Panera Bread locations in 48 states and the District of Columbia and in Ontario, Canada.
