Bottom line
- Total investment $1.3M – $4.7M including a $35K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $2.7M/year (median $2.9M). Estimated payback in 6.0 years.
- Rated STRONG with a risk score of 40/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 3 loans (below the industry average).
- Established system with 2,206 units across 33 years of franchising — strong brand recognition and operational playbook.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one Panera Bread unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
8%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Panera Bread units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
49.9%
7.57× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
1.88×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$1.4M
on $6.8M purchase
Total debt
$5.4M
SBA $3.4M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Franchisees operate fast-casual bakery-café locations serving made-to-order sandwiches, salads, soups, and baked goods. Day-to-day operations include managing kitchen production, customer service, inventory, labor scheduling, and maintaining Panera's brand standards across food quality, cleanliness, and digital ordering integration.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 11 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Panera presents moderate-to-caution risk: a mature, slightly declining QSR system with litigation history, missing financial transparency (no Item 19), and high capital requirements that demand careful unit-level validation.
Score breakdown · what drove the 40 / 100 rating
- 01MEDUnit decline of -0.7% YoY indicates mature/contracting system with 2,206 locations
- 02MINORNo Item 19 (Financial Performance Representations) provided despite average revenue of $2.7M — unable to validate earnings claims
- 03HIGH2019 non-solicitation litigation settlement suggests franchise agreement enforcement issues and potential franchisor-franchisee relationship tensions
- 04MINORHigh initial investment range ($1.3M–$4.6M) requires strong unit-level economics to justify ROI, particularly in declining system
- 05MINORNet income of $492K on $2.7M revenue yields ~18% net margin — acceptable but vulnerable to operational inefficiencies or cost inflation
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
74 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Panera Bread · FDD (2025) PDF