CURRENT ISSUE
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| Made Fresh |
| Cover Story | |
| By Brian Salgado | |
| Wednesday, 15 November 2006 | |
 Au Bon Pain has taken its bakery café concept international with a vision to be beyond the ordinary. “We’re so fortunate we’ve got a rich heritage based and bred in the bakery, because it is complemented now by outstanding food and a culture of hospitality,” President and CEO Sue Morelli says. “Now the company is poised to go from a strong regional brand to a national and even a global brand.” Boston businessman Louis Kane founded ABP in 1978 after discovering a new line of ovens by the French manufacturer Pavailler. Morelli says Pavailler opened a storefront in Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace to bake French bread as a way to market the ovens. ABP says Kane focused on making freshly baked bread for commuters, tourists, shoppers, students and residents throughout urban areas. Today, there are 255 stores, with 120 owned by ABP and the rest operating as independent franchises in transportation centers, universities, hotels, regional shopping malls and hospitals. Staying Fresh Ed Frechette, senior vice president of marketing, says ABP strives to roll out new items on its menu every two months in categories such as bakery, soups, salads, sandwiches and beverages. If an existing item isn’t helping a category grow or meeting a specific nutritional need, ABP eliminates it from the menu. Recently, ABP unveiled a seasonal pumpkin soup; Danish pretzels, pinwheels and a pound cake geared toward afternoon patrons; and a turkey and chutney ciabatta sandwich. Frechette says ABP also plans on releasing additional seasonal beverages, such as a peppermint latte, in the future. New items can be either permanent or seasonal. “We try to create beyond-the-ordinary items,” Frechette says. “The question is how do we innovate around them. It is both science and art when it comes to developing new items, and we use outside data and trends to identify opportunities. Then we let our executive chef, Thomas John, create innovative products.” For example, ABP discovered breakfast sandwiches as a growing trend, and John invented a salmon wasabi sandwich on an onion dill bagel. Although the company is continuously releasing new products, ABP is still known for its Artisan Bread Collection. A variety of breads are for sale through its bakery, but Frechette says these breads are now complementary to the sandwiches served in the restaurants. “We still offer things like olive loaves and three-cheese breads in our core cafés, but they tend to be used more as carriers than a separate line,” he adds. ABP has had a suburban presence for several years, and the company is refocusing its efforts to expand in these locations. Frechette says the company has determined the design of ABP’s urban locations do not work as well in suburbs. “These have a larger seating area, table delivery service and a greater emphasis on the dinner part of the day,” Frechette says of the suburban sites. Focus on Nutrition ABP is responding to growing demand for more nutritious options. “We were already going down that path, but it is becoming important for more and more people,” Frechette says. “We have already taken major steps on the trans-fat issue, but we recognize we have to do more things, like address sodium content. This is not foreign to us, and we have been talking extensively.” In fact, ABP added Nutrition Kiosks to all of its locations in the last three years. The kiosks, which earned the 2003 Nation’s Restaurant News Innovator Award in the quick-service category, offer in-depth ingredient and dietary information about each ABP menu item. John is also on the lookout for ingredients and recipes that have better nutritional content. “It goes hand-in-hand with ABP being on the cutting edge,” Morelli says. A Bright Future Morelli says ABP underwent a management buyout in July 2005 from its parent, U.K.-based Compass. She believes this has created an owner-operator culture than gives ABP’s employees down to the store manager level a stake in the well-being of the company. “It is a great platform to have outstanding customer service and great performance overall,” Morelli adds. “We can offer a quick grab-and-go, and there are dense urban populations that need those amenities.” As much as Morelli would like to see the company experience opportunistic growth nationally and beyond, Frechette says the key to success will be how well ABP maintains the treatment of its guests. “Our vision is to preserve what we have and to make ourselves more accessible to more guests,” Frechette says. “That is our biggest challenge, as well: how to keep something that works well as a small company and expand.” |
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