Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built. Order the How I Built This book at https://www.guyraz.com/
Panera: Ron Shaich. The Big Bet That Changed Fast Food (2018)
In the early 1980s, Ron Shaich took over Au Bon Pain, a struggling group of Boston bakeries, and helped grow it into a national chain with 250 locations. But Ron saw an even bigger opportunity in a small bakery chain in St. Louis. So he made a remarkable gamble: he sold Au Bon Pain to focus entirely on what would become Panera Bread. That bet helped transform the way Americans eat—and turned Panera into a multibillion-dollar business.
What You’ll Learn
- How customers asking for sliced baguettes helped Ron discover a bigger business in sandwiches
- What he saw in a 19-store bakery chain with surprisingly low real estate costs
- Why Ron sold Au Bon Pain after building it into a national chain to concentrate on Panera
- How Panera used falling real estate and construction costs to expand during the Great Recession
- Why Ron believed staying on Wall Street could threaten the long-term bets that made Panera successful
Production Credits
How I Built This is produced by Podcast Pointman and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
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