Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue I, 2012 | Page 17

MEGA

BOTTOM LINE
Annual revenue: Roughly, over $400 million. That’s growing quite a bit
each year now. We’re the largest Panera franchisee, and the fifth-largest restaurant franchisee in the country.

much the same. You realize that customers have less disposable income, so
you want to make sure that your customer comes to you. They have other
choices. We want to be their number-one choice.

2012 goals: We’re going to be developing Canada. That’s going to be very
interesting. People are training for it already. We’ll open our first store in Toronto March 1, and we have seven more lined up. The second will come probably two or three weeks after, and then we’re ready to take off. Also, I can’t
say right now, but there are a couple of other markets we’d like to purchase for
growth. In the meantime, we’ll be opening close to 30 stores in the next year,
just in our own markets.

Where do you find capital for expansion? We’ve been very fortunate
because business has been healthy. That hasn’t been an issue for us.

Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? We look at total sales and increases. We don’t want to open a store that hurts another down
the street. We like to keep average volume up higher each year. It’s ridiculous
to open a store for the sake of it. We want positive
growth, big volume, and that’s when we’re opening stores the right way.
Vision meter: Where do you want to be
in 5 years? 10 years? Number one, I want
to be alive. I want to continue to grow like we
are. Hopefully we’ll have more markets, and our
people have more opportunity to get promoted. I
just hope in 10 years I enjoy what I’m doing like
I am now.
How has the most recent economic cycle
affected you, your employees, your customers? We’ve kind of been the employer of
choice with our associates. People enjoy working
with us. They love wearing their Panera hats when
they’re not at work, and that tells me they feel
good about working at Panera. I like to say we’re
the best of Panera, and Panera’s the best of the
restaurant business right now. I think that’s ݡ