Au Bon Pain facts for kids
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Au Bon Pain, Harvard Square, 2005
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Trade name
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Au Bon Pain |
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Fast-casual restaurant, bakery, and café |
| Founded | 1976 in Boston |
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United States
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Number of locations
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34 (2025) |
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Area served
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| Owner | AMPEX Brands |
Au Bon Pain (pronounced "Oh Bon Pan") is a popular American restaurant chain. Its name means "at the good bread" in French. It's a "fast-casual" place, which means it's quicker than a sit-down restaurant but offers higher quality food than fast food.
Au Bon Pain is known for its bakery items. They sell fresh bread, pastries, croissants, and bagels. You can also get coffee, tea, and espresso drinks there. For meals, they offer breakfast items like egg sandwiches. For lunch, they have soups, salads, and sandwiches. They also provide food for events, which is called catering.
As of 2025, Au Bon Pain has 34 locations in the United States. Most of these are on the East Coast. They also have some stores in Thailand and Taiwan. The company is owned by AMPEX Brands.
Contents
History of Au Bon Pain
How Au Bon Pain Started
Au Bon Pain began in 1976 in Faneuil Hall in Boston. It was started by a French company called Pavailler. Pavailler made ovens for baking. They wanted Au Bon Pain to show off how well their ovens worked.
The first stores sold French croissants, pastries, and bread. French bakers made all the delicious items. In 1977, they opened more stores in New Jersey and New York City.
New Ownership and Growth
In 1978, a businessman named Louis I. Kane bought Au Bon Pain. He really liked the smell of the fresh baked goods. He changed the business plan to focus on selling food, not ovens.
By 1980, the company was making over $1 million in sales. However, it was still losing money. In 1981, Ronald M. Shaich and his father bought a large part of the company. This helped save it from financial trouble.
In 1991, Au Bon Pain became a public company. This meant people could buy shares of the company's stock.
Expanding and Changing Hands
In 1993, Au Bon Pain bought another company called Saint Louis Bread Company. This company later became very famous as Panera Bread. Au Bon Pain also bought some bakery locations from another company and turned them into Au Bon Pain stores.
In 1999, the company that owned Au Bon Pain (which was renamed Panera Bread) sold the Au Bon Pain part of the business. It was sold to a company called Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. Then, in 2000, it was sold again to Compass Group.
In 2000, Au Bon Pain also started opening stores in Taipei, Taiwan. This was part of an agreement with a local coffee company.
Challenges and New Beginnings
A sad event happened in 2001. An Au Bon Pain store was located in the underground shopping mall at the World Trade Center in New York. This store was destroyed during the September 11 attacks.
In 2005, the managers of Au Bon Pain bought 75% of the company. Compass Group kept the other 25%. Later, in 2008, a company called LNK Partners bought most of the company.
In 2011, all Au Bon Pain locations were updated. They went through a big remodeling project. In 2012, the number of Au Bon Pain stores reached its highest point, with over 200 locations.
In 2013, the company made a promise. They said that by 2017, they would only use eggs from free-range chickens. This means the chickens are allowed to roam freely.
Returning to Panera and New Ownership
On November 8, 2017, Panera Bread announced that it was buying Au Bon Pain. This was interesting because Au Bon Pain had been part of Panera before. After this deal, Ron Shaich, who had helped save Au Bon Pain years ago, stepped down as CEO.
In December 2019, the last Au Bon Pain store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, closed. This was a big change because Cambridge had been home to the company for over 35 years.
In June 2021, AMPEX Brands bought Au Bon Pain from Panera Bread. This deal helped keep the Au Bon Pain brand alive. Many Au Bon Pain stores had been closing or changing into Panera Bread stores. AMPEX Brands also moved the company's main office to Texas.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused many people to stay home. This meant fewer people were visiting stores in cities. Because of this, more Au Bon Pain locations closed. The number of stores in the United States dropped to 123. However, under the new ownership, new stores have started to open again. One of the first new locations opened in a Macy's store in Queens Center Mall.
In 2024, the very last Au Bon Pain location in Boston closed. It was located in the South Station train terminal.
See also
- List of coffeehouse chains
- List of bakery cafés
