WHDN (was Re: Food Chains (was: Blaw-Knox towers and Nashville))

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Sat, 19 Mar 2011 06:49:33 -0400, "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net> said:

> Pain. As I recall, the story goes something like this: The guy who is
> now CEO and chairman of Panera bought Au Bon Pain (whose business was,
> at the time, mainly takeout), moved the corporate headquarters from
> Boston to St Louis, changed the corporate name to St Louis Bread Co,
> and, under the St Louis Bread name, began opening the current Panera
> style "bakery cafe's,"

That's not quite right.  What actually happened was that Au Bon Pain
bought St. Louis Bread Co., which had already started opening Panera
Bread stores outside its home territory.[1]  The new company then sold
off the Au Bon Pain business to private investors, moved headquarters
to St. Louis, and renamed itself Panera Bread.

They also have a third brand name in the west, Paradise Bakery & Cafe,
acquired in 2007.

-GAWollman

[1] And "St. Louis" just says "Mmm, tasty" to you, right?  That's why
they only use that name in the St. Louis metropolitan area.