Panera Bread is making changes to how it bakes its goods. The company is moving from baking everything from scratch in its cafés to using a “par-baked” process (i.e. partial baking). This means some fresh dough facilities across the country will close, which will affect employees and change how Panera makes its baked items.
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Panera Bread plans to shut down its fresh dough facility in Brentwood, Missouri, by September 12. This closure will lead to 72 people losing their jobs. The company is shifting to a nationwide par-baked production model for all products, even their vegan options.
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By June 24, four fresh dough facilities in the U.S. had already closed. These locations include ones in Denver, Seattle, Arizona, and Houston.
Panera announced that workers impacted by closures will get severance pay, help finding new jobs, and access to job fairs to assist with their career transitions.
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The new par-baked model works by having third-party contractors prepare and partially bake dough, then freeze it before sending it to cafes. This method lets cafes bake fresh goods throughout the day instead of only baking them in the morning.
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Panera’s par-baked model allows the company to open stores in places that were hard to reach before because fresh dough couldn’t be delivered there. It also helps make sure that baked goods are available for customers all day long.
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Fresh dough facilities used to be run by bakers who made fresh bread, bagels, and roll dough every day. These facilities worked separately from the cafes they supplied and managed their own profits and losses.
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Sources say that Panera locations in Denver, Seattle, and Arizona were closed because they weren’t doing well. Panera representatives did not explain how they decide if a location is performing well or not.
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Some Panera workers on Reddit think other fresh dough facilities, like the ones in Stockton, California, and Atlanta, could be closing next. However, Panera has not confirmed these claims. Panera is planning to close all its fresh dough facilities over the next two years. However, in some areas, employees have been told the switch to frozen dough might take up to four years.
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Panera has promised that workers from closed fresh dough facilities will get new jobs in their cafes as baker-associates. The company says pay, full-time hours, and benefits should stay the same.
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Some workers and customers are worried that switching to par-baked goods might take Panera away from its tradition of offering freshly baked items, which has been an important part of its brand.
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Panera Bread saw a 2.6% increase in sales and a 2.2% rise in locations last year, according to data from Technomic. The company thinks its par-baked model will help it grow even more in the future.
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Panera has not provided official comments about closing fresh dough facilities or switching to a par-baked system. However, the company is working on changing its operations to keep up with its business needs.
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