Panera’s CEO unveiled a comeback plan—and it includes better ingredients like lettuce: ‘No one likes iceberg’

Panera, once considered the gold standard in American fast-casual dining, has fallen behind rivals such as Chipotle and Panda Express, with sales falling 5% to $6.1 billion last year. Carbone says the goal is to reach $7 billion in annual sales by 2028 through “Panera RISE,” a new strategy aimed at undoing the chain’s cost-cutting measures, which he called “death by a thousand pieces of paper.”

The repair process includes:

• lettuce: The salads will be completely romaine again and will no longer include the iceberg. “Nobody Likes an Iceberg,” said Carbone, who might as well have been offering a four-word review of “Nobody Likes an Iceberg.” Titanic. The salads will also contain eight ingredients instead of the current five.
• Tomatoes: Starting next year, salads will contain sliced ​​cherry tomatoes (instead of whole tomatoes, which were used to save money).
• drinks: Fresca and “energy replenishment” drinks (containing less caffeine than the one that led to the wrongful death of two people Lawsuits) in the near future.
• Parts: Wall Street Journal Reports Panera is “boosting portions” after cutting back on its sandwiches.
• exhaustion: There will be more workers on hand, and the company is reinvesting in self-ordering kiosks that haven’t been upgraded in nearly a decade.

Minimize: Panera also looks to emulate the value offerings at establishments like Chili’s, but lacks appetizer options. “We haven’t been able to crack the code yet,” Carbone said.—DL

This was the report Originally published by Morning drink.