Panera chief innovation officer resignsPanera chief innovation officer resigns

Scott G. Davis. Photo: Panera

Panera Bread Co. chief concept and innovation officer Scott G. Davis has resigned effective Dec. 31, the company said Tuesday.

The St. Louis-based bakery-café operator said in documents filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Davis informed the company on Dec. 17 that he “would not return following his previously announced sabbatical for personal reasons to focus on his health.”

Davis, who also served as an executive vice president of the company, has been instrumental in the bakery-café’s positioning.

In 2011, when Davis received a Nation’s Restaurant News MenuMasters Award as an Innovator, Ron Shaich, Panera’s founder, chairman and chief executive, said: “As much as any single person, he has been at the core of the success of Panera Bread.

“There is nothing in Panera that he hasn’t had his hands on, that hasn’t been influenced positively by Scott,” said Shaich, who has worked directly with Davis since 1993.

In a statement Wednesday, a company spokeswoman said: “Scott worked with Ron for nearly 30 years, going back to the earliest days of Panera. During that time he was instrumental in establishing Panera's vision regarding concept essence and menu.”
 
Leading up to Davis’ sabbatical, Panera redistributed his duties to Bryan Timko, senior vice president of menu innovation projects, and Dan Kish, senior vice president for food, the spokeswoman said.
 
Timko joined Panera from Staples earlier this year, and he “brings a great background in merchandising and new business development,” she said. Kish joined Panera in 2007, after serving as the associate dean of the Culinary Institute of America.

Davis was named executive vice president and chief concept officer in May 2010, after leading the Panera concept team since 1995. Prior to that, Davis worked with Au Bon Pain, starting in 1987, and helped with the acquisition of Saint Louis Bread in 1993.

“I am still not a classically trained chef by any means,” Davis said at the time of the MenuMasters Award, “but I know how to speak the language and how to interface among operations and culinary and design, and to get everyone talking together and get things to work.”

Davis, who holds an associate’s degree in computer science, added that “not having a culinary background meant I didn’t know what couldn’t be done. For example, people told me I couldn’t put Asiago cheese on a bagel. I said, ‘Why not?’ It became the biggest-selling bagel.”

Shaich said Davis “was instrumental in adding the breakfast daypart and the gathering daypart, which was driven by the physicality of the store — how you felt when you were in the café.”

Shaich added that Davis, “more than anyone, was with me in creating the vision and then in making that vision happen. And along the way, he started as my student and then became my teacher.”

The company did not responded to requests by press time regarding possible successors to Davis.

Panera’s net income fell 8.3 percent for the Sept. 30-ended third quarter, to $39.2 million, or $1.46 per share, from $42.8 million, or $1.48 per share the previous year. Revenue rose 8.3 percent, to $619.9 million, from $572.5 million, the company reported Oct. 29.

As of Sept. 30, Panera had 1,845 bakery-cafés in 45 states and Ontario, Canada, operating under the Panera Bread, Saint Louis Bread Co. and Paradise Bakery & Café names.

Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless