Au Bon Pain

“It was a huge boardroom struggle, because I had two votes, our venture capitalists had three, and all of them had invested in Au Bon Pain.”

“So in November of 1993, we bought the St. Louis Bread Company, those 19 stores, for twenty-three million dollars.”

“I came to them and said, look it, I think I can fix this. You give me 60% of the company. You and your investors keep 40%. I'll put my cookie store, which was making money, in with your three Obonpens, and we'll create a new company.”

“St. Louis Bread Company was generating volumes nearly as high as Au Bon Pain, But doing so in real estate that cost half as much.”

“And for people who were working in white collar jobs increasingly in urban settings, this was the first example of what we later came to call fast casual. This was an attempt to do something that was better But in a quick service mode.”

“Pepsi came after us. They decided this was going to be the third leg of Pepsi food service, and they created something called La Petite Boulangerette. Sarah Lee came after us. They bought a chain called Michelle's Baguette, and they were going to open 400 stor…”

“We didn't even have the ability to maintain our equipment, and I would use my auto mechanic to help fix the equipment. I didn't know what else to call, and we had a dough divider that was essentially being held together with bailing wire and paper clips.”

“We put defrosted spinach in clothes dryers letting it run off the water was a great idea until one day we blew the top off the dryer and ended up with spinach in, in all 3000 square feet of the production space.”

“Late in 2017, after Panera went private again, and 20 years after selling Obonpan to focus on building out Panera, the company actually bought back Obonpan.”

“But we put defrosted spinach in clothes dryers letting it run off the water was a great idea until one day we blew the top off the dryer and ended up with spinach in In all 3000 square feet of the production space.”

“You give me 60% of the company. You and your investors keep 40%. I'll put my cookie store, which was making money, in with your three Obonpens, and we'll create a new company.”

“It was a huge boardroom struggle, because I had two votes, our venture capitalists had three, and all of them had invested in Au Bon Pain.”

“Pepsi came after us. They decided this was going to be the third leg of Pepsi food service, and they created something called La Petite Boulangerie. Sarah Lee came after us. They bought a chain called Michelle's Baguette, and they were going to open 400 stores…”

“I owned, you know, six times more stock than him, but most of the community at that point undoubtedly thought the company was Lou's.”

“So, in November of 1993, we bought the St. Louis Bread Company, those 19 stores, for twenty-three million dollars.”

“The stock has been up a hundredfold since then.”

“What the bakery cafe was an alternative between down and dirty fast food. And fine dining. And for people who were working in white collar jobs increasingly in urban settings, this was the first example of what we later came to call fast casual.”

“St. Louis Bread Company was generating volumes nearly as high as Au Bon Pain, but doing so in real estate that cost half as much.”