Panera Bread Franchise Coming To Richland

(Thursday, January 17, 2008) - Panera Bread, an upscale cafe and restaurant, confirmed Friday that it will enter the Johnstown market this year.

The new store will be at Richland Town Centre in Richland Township.

Andrew Carlson, spokesman for St. Louis-based Panera Bread, said the store is scheduled to open by early fall.

Panera Bread is known for making all of its baked goods on site, including a variety of breads, bagels and pastries. All of its baking is done in a stone deck oven, where the products are baked directly on a hot stone slab rather than in a pan.

The menu at each restaurant features a variety of specialty sandwiches and soups.

Each location affords its customers free wireless Internet connectivity.

Few details about the new store were immediately available. Attempts to contact the franchisee, Covelli Enterprises Inc. of Warren, Ohio, were unsuccessful.

Like all of its restaurants, Carlson said the local Panera Bread will be open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He said those hours dictate that Panera Bread locations are selected carefully.

"When picking out a location, we try to strive for a place where there is a good balance of commercial, residential and retail," Carlson said. "We want to make sure we're in places that have the traffic to sustain all three meals we serve."

He said the chain now has more than 1,100 stores in 40 states. The closest Panera Bread restaurants to Johnstown are in Altoona and Greensburg.

About two-thirds of Panera Bread's stores are franchise operations. Carlson said Covelli Enterprises is one of Panera's largest franchisees and operates largely in the Cleveland and Pittsburgh markets.

View all Panera Bread/Saint Louis Bread Co. Press Releases

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