Panera Bread Company

Panera Bread Company is an American chain of bakery-cafe fast casual restaurants in the United States and Canada. The fast-casual restaurant chain of Panera Bread combines both the concepts of fast-food and casual-dining concept. The fast-food concept is similar to that of McDonald's and Popeye's and the casual-dining concept is similar to that of Olive Garden and Chili's. Panera Bread began as segment of Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. in 1981 founded by Louis Kane and Ron Shaich. Au Bon Pain purchased St. Louis Bread Company and changed the name to Panera Bread. Au Bon Pain Co. sold its other chains, including Au Bon Pain in order to direct all management and financial resources to Panera Bread.

The four test of competitive power of Panera Bread Company is described below:

Test 1: Is the resource or capability competitively valuable?

Panera Bread follows its official Food Policy and claims that they commit to use clean ingredients during food production and also to remove artificial additives, which includes colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives. According to the customers who have tasted the food from one of their store chain, the food was of high quality and did not have to wait for long, and also the price of the food was low. So based on the above facts and evaluation, Panera Bread passes the test of valuable.

Test 2: Is the resource rare- is it something rivals lack (rare)?

The rapidity of Panera's food is one that can be elusive in comparative restaurants Their bread is quite often prepared to be served .The pastry kitchen industry however is not rare and unique. Other foods offered alongside the breads like soup and all orders coming with free chips or fruit can offer a rare combination and help set Panera apart as which Panera Bread passes the second test as well.

Test 3: Is the resource or capability inimitable or hard to copy?

As Panera's bread has situated their stores in high-center end shopping centers and neighborhoods like in Washington DC Panera has set their outlets at Tenley town, Friendship statures and Bethesda metro station, which can be a costly wander for contenders. So there are couple of contenders like Chipotle Mexican Grill and Starbucks. Likewise, their novel support of give quick and sound nourishments makes other contender intricate and questionable.

Test 4: Is the resource vulnerable to the threat of substitution from different types of resources and capabilities (non-substitutable)?