Panera Brands is changing its leadership before it holds an initial public offering of its stock, the company announced Tuesday.
José Alberto Dueñas will become the new CEO, the company said. Dueñas is now president and CEO of Einstein Bros. Bagels, which is owned by Panera. The current Panera CEO, Niren Chaudhary, will become chairman of Panera Brands.
In addition, the Sunset Hills, Missouri-based company announced its new chairman of the audit committee, Patrick Grismer, a former Starbucks chief financial officer.
The personnel changes become effective July 1. The company did not specify when it will hold its IPO.
Last year, the company scrapped plans for an IPO in partnership with St. Louis native Danny Meyer, the founder of the Shake Shack chain and such upscale restaurants as New York's Gramercy Tavern.
The market for IPOs had been hot when Panera first announced its interest, in November 2021. The stock issued in the IPO was going to be sold to USHG Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company run by Meyer. The two companies had planned to merge after the IPO, with a sizable amount of stock still owned by JAB Holdings, the Luxembourg-based private equity group that has owned Panera since 2017.
However, as the market for IPOs began to cool, so did Panera's enthusiasm for the IPO. Interest in special purpose acquisition companies, known as SPACs, also started to wane at the same time.
Chaudhary, in a statement, reflected on his time as CEO. He noted that during those years, the company expanded its global footprint and brought Einstein Bros. Bagels and Caribou Coffee into the Panera Brands fold.
As of April, there were 2,121 Panera Bread bakery-cafés in 49 states and the District of Columbia and Ontario, Canada, including a few in the local area that still operate as St. Louis Bread Co. Caribou Coffee has 738 stores in 10 countries.
Einstein Bros. Bagels, which includes Bruegger's Bagels, New York Bagels and Manhattan Bagel, operates 984 company-owned and franchised stores across the country.
