Food & Beverage
Panera slices into pizza category with flatbread pies
Panera is launching a pizza category nationally this week with three takes on flatbread pies.
October 28, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group
Panera is launching a menu category all wrapped around flatbread pizza and rolling it out nationally this week.
The fast casual chain's head chef, Claes Petersson, created the pizzas using what the brand said is extra finely ground flour for the crust of Panera's cheese margherita and chipotle chicken and bacon variations of the pies, according to a press release.
"With the launch of Flatbread pizza, we are looking to redefine the expectation of pizza and carve out a niche for Panera in the pizza category," Petersson said in the release. "Our flatbread pizzas encompass the best of what Panera has to offer: clean, delicious ingredients from our pantry on top of oven-baked flatbread that is expertly crafted for our guests."
The pies are priced starting at $7.99 each and Panera expects pizza will become a strong niche category for the brand since it jibes with the brand's strong delivery channel, as well as the fact that pizza is shown to be ordered at lunch as much as for dinner, which the chain began pushing more strongly last year.
At the end of September, Panera and its alternate brand name, Saint Louis Bread Co., had 2,118 bakery-cafes in 48 states and in Ontario, Canada. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri.
About S.A. Whitehead
Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.
