Panera Bread’s parent company announced on Tuesday that CEO Jose Dueñas is resigning, effective immediately. This change in leadership poses a new obstacle to the company’s plans to eventually go public, after facing several challenges in recent years.
Panera Brands CFO Paul Carbone will serve as the interim chief executive while the board seeks a permanent replacement to lead the company, which includes Panera Bread, Einstein Bros., and Caribou Coffee. Dueñas will remain as a special advisor until the end of March. He assumed the role of CEO of Panera Brands in July 2023, following four years as the head of bagel chain Einstein Bros.
JAB Holding, the investment entity of the Reimann family, acquired Panera Bread in 2017 for $7.5 billion, privatizing it and subsequently establishing Panera Brands through additional acquisitions. JAB has been attempting to reintroduce Panera to the public market for some time. In 2022, Panera terminated an agreement with Danny Meyer’s special purpose acquisition company due to market conditions.
In the same announcement in 2023 that introduced Dueñas as the new CEO, Panera stated that the leadership transition was part of the preparation for a potential initial public offering. Subsequently, in December 2023, the company confidentially filed for an IPO. However, it has yet to go public, facing legal challenges related to its highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade, a challenging year for the restaurant industry, and a slow IPO market in 2024.
