Panera's Franchise Base Commits To New Technology Platform

Panera Bread announced today that 100 percent of its franchisees have committed to Panera 2.0, a series of technologies including digital ordering and payment. The company first unveiled the initiative in April as a way to "reduce friction," such as wait times and order inaccuracies, for the customer.

The franchisees"� commitment involves payment of capital contributions to Panera as well as ongoing commitments to reimburse the company for each franchisee's share of development costs, maintenance and future upgrades, according to a news release.

"We are very pleased that our franchisees have unanimously embraced 2.0," CEO Ron Shaich said in the release. "For the past two years, we have shared this vision with our franchisees, allowing them to be both informed and aligned. They asked hard questions. The fact that we received their commitments less than six weeks after making the formal request underscores how supportive they are of our initiatives." Panera expects to have its Rapid Pick-Up system enabled by its mobile app and Web apps in place by the end of 2014.The full Panera 2.0 system is expected to be rolled out to approximately 100 cafes by the end of 2014.

"The Panera franchisee community is very supportive of the moves Panera is making into ecommerce and the broader vision around Panera 2.0. Our focus as a brand has always been on long-term value creation, and this will allow Panera to sustain future growth by creating a better customer experience," Franchise Chairman of the Bread Council Tom Howley said in the release.

The Bread Council is an independent group elected by franchisees that discusses strategic matters with the company.

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