Ones to Watch | By Sabrina Davis
Paradise Bakery & Café
Paradise’s sandwiches are $6.75. Top
sellers in that category include the Ham and Brie Panini topped
with sliced green apples and the Turkey Chipotle Wrap. Salads
run from $3.95 to $6.85. Soups and specialty pastas are also
available. The breakfast menu includes omelets, egg sandwiches
and wraps, quiche, fruit parfaits, and baked goods. Almost the
entire menu is available for catering.
“We really believe our style of
service is what makes us so profitable,” Birzon says.
“We bring them through a cafeteria line where they
interact with our employees wearing their white chef’s
coats and chef’s caps. We have a sandwich station, a soup
station, a salad station, and a baked goods station.
There’s a tremendous opportunity to upsell.”
Paradise Bakery & Café
CEO: Dan
Patterson
HQ: Scottsdale,
Arizona
Year started: 1976
Annual sales: $100 million
(projected for 2007)
Total units: 57
Franchised: 28
Why
it bears watching: Paradise Bakery & Café always has seen
itself as a leader—a brand with a competitive spirit. It
comes naturally given that founder and CEO Dan Patterson was a
member of the 1968 and 1972 U.S. men’s Olympic volleyball
teams. He has said athletics was a good training ground for
business.
Being a good teammate is critical now for
the company that hopes to continue to grow in its own right
despite being little brother to the segment leader. Paradise
already has grown by 11 stores mainly in the Southwest since
Panera’s majority acquisition and plans to add another 14
by year’s end. “We’ll open another eight to
12 stores next year,” Birzon says, “but will spend
much of that time deciding what we want to do with the
concept—if we want to grow rapidly through franchising or
be more of a boutique concept.”
Birzon says Panera has indicated it will
let Paradise’s company leaders continue to make strategic
decisions about growth. That allowance for autonomy is part of
what made the partnership with Panera attractive, Birzon says.
That goes along with the fact that Panera, like Paradise, still
sees value in operating its own stores. About 50 percent of the
Paradise stores are company-owned, while Panera operates about
40 percent of its stores.
