Here’s a major sandwich chain closing some restaurants, bakery locations

Big time changes are in store for Panera Bread.

The beloved sandwich brand has always been built around freshly baked bread, but how it gets that bread to stores is changing.

Now owned by private company JAB Holding, Panera has been in a multi-year process of closing its Fresh Dough Facilities, and it will start shuttering the remaining facilities over the next 18 months to two years.

This completes a transition that began more than a year ago.

For many years across the nation, Panera has used its fresh dough bakeries to produce the dough used for bread, bagels, and pastries every day in all the chain’s bakery-cafés.

Slowly but surely, the chain has been getting rid of those locations and switching to a par-baked model where products arrive half-baked, frozen, and are finished on-site in ovens.

According to what Panera Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Brooke Buchanan told Nation’s Restaurant News, the shift is set to streamline operations and ensure consistent, available products as the brand accelerates growth under a three-year transformation plan.

“Our bread is our superstar and the homage to our brand. We wanted to make sure that the product in store was top quality, using the best ingredients based on our recipes.…The hardest thing for our team members is to say, ‘No, we’re out of that product,’” she said.

All in all, the Panera brand is trading in bread baked from uncooked dough, which could sell out, for par-baked products that are easier to withhold in stock.

“It’s another story about nostalgia because the brand itself is based on that nostalgia feeling that they make their own bread. And I do get the idea that being more efficient can help keep jobs and profit, but will it still retain that emotional component of that feeling of that bread for people who love the brand,” RTMNexus CEO Dominick Miserandino told TheStreet.

But when it comes to such a hefty trade, don’t think Panera is sacrificing the quality, as the chain promises that the bread will taste the same. The brand also emphasized that the recipes, ingredients and quality standards will remain the same.

Additionally, the Panera Bread chain has also faced store closures where the restaurant chain lost 15 locations earlier this year, when franchise operator EYM Café filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. At the time of filing, the company reported $0-$50,000 in assets and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities.

“The company is facing substantial tax liabilities, including $550,000 owed to the Internal Revenue Service and over $354,714 in 941 tax obligations. Additionally, the company owes $124,186 to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts,” RK Consulting reported.

Before the August Chapter 11 filing, Panera Bread was involved in a suit with its franchise operator, accusing it of repeatedly breaching its franchise agreements by failing to make required payments, maintain food safety standards, and pay vendors and landlords.

Per the suit, Panera terminated franchise rights at a number of Houston-area locations earlier this year, but said the franchisee continued to operate the locations, CoveringKaty reported.