Copyright The Oregonian
Panera Bread will be closing all of its fresh dough bakeries over the next 18 months to two years and will be moving to par-baked products, according to National Restaurant News. In 2024, Panera began slowly shutting down fresh dough facilities. Panera utilized these facilities across the country for the bread, bagels and baked goods in Panera’s café section. It will switch to par-baked products that will finish baking on-site. With bread being the cornerstone of Panera, its chief corporate officer, Brooke Buchanan, said this new model will allow items to be available more regularly across locations. “This new model allows us to develop more stores and grow throughout the United States in cities and towns that we couldn’t expand to previously because of the limited distance those [fresh dough facility delivery] trucks could travel,” Buchanan said. Panera will partner with artisan bakery producers that will use the company’s recipe and create the par-baked product, which will be delivered to various locations, according to National Restaurant News. Bakers at the dough facilities will lose their jobs in the closings but will be offered other positions in Panera or the opportunity to “pursue other opportunities through company-hosted job fairs.”
