Panera announces 9 plants will close as communities brace for job losses

Panera is making big changes.

More specifically, it has announced plans to shutter its remaining nine fresh dough facilities over the next two years.

Here are some of the soon-to-be impacted communities:

• Elk Grove Village, Illinois
• West Chester, Ohio
• Warren, Ohio
• Jessup, Maryland
• Franklin, Massachusetts

(The list above was compiled based on job openings advertised on the Panera website – a complete list of impacted communities is surprisingly difficult to find.)

These join communities that recently lost their own fresh dough facilities, including:

• Romulus, Michigan
• Orlando, Florida
• Greensboro, North Carolina
• Lenexa, Kansas

Impacted team members have the chance to apply for other roles at Panera’s local cafes, or to take advantage of company-sponsored job fairs.

It still stinks to lose your job, though, regardless.

At a high level, the reason for the change is simple – Panera is moving away from making and baking its dough in-house, and shifting instead to parbaking. Panera will partner with outside bakeries, who will make dough to spec, partially bake it, then ship it to the local cafes to finish baking in their own ovens.

It’s good for efficiency (and for ensuring that bakeries never run out of bagels), but will the food quality suffer?

Let us know your prediction in the comments.

And if you’re an impacted employee, know that you’re not alone! We’re all rooting for you!

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