St. Louis Bread Co. founder Ken Rosenthal invested $150,000 and took out an SBA loan for another $150,000 to open his first bakery-cafe in Kirkwood in 1987. He has since sold the company, now known as Panera Bread Co., and become one of its largest franchisees with 76 locations in Ohio and Colorado. But few, including Rosenthal, could have predicted Panera’s growth to more than 1,300 restaurants across the country and annual corporate revenue of $1.3 billion.
That success made Panera the best-performing stock of the past decade among St. Louis-headquartered public companies. Its share price has risen 1,654 percent, from $3.88 a share on Dec. 31, 1999, to $67.95 a share on Dec. 28, 2009. Along the way, Panera has largely led the evolution of what has become known as the fast-casual restaurant category.