Panera Bread Company yesterday reported that earnings per diluted share increased 57 percent to $0.33 for the 12 weeks ended July 12, 2005, compared to $0.21 per diluted share for the same period last year. Net income for the twelve weeks ended July 12, 2005, increased 61 percent to nearly $10.5 million compared to the approximately $6.5 for the same period in the prior year.

For the 28 weeks ended July 12, 2005, earnings per diluted share increased 48 percent to $0.77. During this same period last year, the earnings per diluted share were $0.52. Net income for the 28 weeks ended July 12, 2005, jumped 52 percent to $24,352,000 – compared to the nearly $16 million for the same period in 2004.

As of July 12, 2005, there were 795 Panera Bread bakery-cafes open. During the most recent quarter, 24 bakery-cafes were opened and two were closed.

Ron Shaich, chairman and chief executive officer, says, “These record results were driven by our ongoing rollout of the Panera concept and by the very strong comparable bakery-cafe sales growth we have experienced. We expect our second-half results will show continued strength in development and higher than originally targeted system-wide comparable sales growth.”