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Panera earns top spot on Fast Casual Top 100

FastCasual.com’s editorial team has released its annual list of the industry’s most significant brands and trends, awarding Panera Bread the top spot

Blaine Hurst (center), chief transformation & growth officer for Panera Bread with FastCasual.com's editor Cherryh Butler and Jeremy Dobrowolski, COO of Taylor Co.

May 18, 2015

FastCasual.com’s editorial team has released its annual list of the industry’s most significant brands and trends, awarding Panera Bread the top spot. The 2015 Fast Casual Top 100 Movers & Shakers publication is now available for download and comes after an awards gala Sunday in Chicago. Sponsored by Taylor Company, the gala honored the Top 50 brands on this year's list.

This year’s list included 75 brands in which judges narrowed down from a pool of 900 nominations from FastCasual.com readers. Criteria included innovation, growth, social responsibility and overall contribution. The last 25 spots on the list went to the year’s most influential menu and technology trends as well as the industry’s most innovative marketing campaigns.

“We always take growth and sales into consideration, but we go beyond those as well,” said Cherryh Butler, managing editor of FastCasual.com. “It's takes a little subjectivity to identify brands that are taking risks to further the success and growth of the fast casual industry. Based on that criteria, Panera came out on top this year.”

Butler said Panera’s 2.0 initiative is about as big a risk as a brand of its size  can take.

"It's exciting to see a successful brand like Panera test something so innovative," Butler said. "Like Panera, all the brands on this year's list are clear leaders in the industry."

Other gala sponsors included Coyle, Lighthouse, Aeris, Marketforce and KECdesign.

Click here to see the rest of the list.