A Panera Bread mango yuzu citrus charged lemonade is displayed at a Panera Bread restaurant in Novato, California, on Nov. 1, 2023.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Panera Bread has confidentially filed to go public again, people aware of the matter told CNBC.
The restaurant chain, known for its soups, sandwiches and bagels, has been signaling for months that it’s trying to go public through an initial public offering. In May, Panera announced a CEO transition and said the leadership changes were “in preparation for its eventual IPO” — amid a two-year IPO drought that led to the autumn.
Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava, whose chair is Panera founder Ron Shaich, was among the many trickle of corporations that went public this 12 months. Investors had mixed reactions to the slate of offerings.
Panera is not alone in hoping market conditions improve in 2024. Chinese-founded fast-fashion giant Shein confidentially filed to go public Monday, and Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Reddit and Skims may be in next 12 months’s IPO class.
Panera declined to comment to CNBC. The news was first reported by the Financial Times.
The corporate was last publicly traded in 2017. JAB Holding, the investment arm of the Reimann family, bought the corporate for $7.5 billion. It added Panera to a portfolio that, at the moment, included Keurig and Krispy Kreme.
In recent times, nevertheless, JAB has been reworking its portfolio. In 2021, it sold Au Bon Pain to a Yum Brands franchisee and took Krispy Kreme public.
JAB also tried to take Panera public again that 12 months. But in 2022, Panera called off its cope with Danny Meyer’s special purpose acquisition company. The weird arrangement would have exchanged shares of USHG Acquisition for the sandwich chain’s stock and allowed the corporate to survive a merger with Panera’s subsidiary Rye Merger.
Nevertheless, Panera scrapped those plans, citing market conditions.
However the chain’s current try to go public comes because the restaurant has drawn scrutiny for other reasons. The corporate was recently sued for its “charged lemonade.” The plaintiffs allege the drink caused the death of their college-age daughter, who had a heart condition.
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