24 Nov Mason Café Opening Signals More Growth in Our Home State

Mason Café Opening Signals More Growth in Our Home State

Our Plans to Expand in Cincinnati

It’s been nearly four years since the Cincinnati market has seen a new Panera Bread location. Now, we’re starting a new wave of growth in the Queen City beginning with the recent Grand Opening of our drive-thru café in Mason with many more to come. In other words, the focus on expanding the Panera Bread concept in Cincy, one of our home state’s largest cities, has just begun!

The Mason Panera Bread opened Tuesday, November 7 to an excited crowd! The new Panera, located at 5270 Kings Mills Rd. in front of Kroger, opened with a free coffee and travel mug giveaway, free car coaster giveaway for drive-thru customers, and an offering of a $5 gift card for every You-Pick-Two purchased.

The 5,000-square-foot, next-generation, freestanding bakery-cafe is equipped with a convenient drive-thru and plenty of patio space for guests to enjoy a meal outdoors when the weather permits. In addition, it is the first Panera in Cincinnati to offer kiosk ordering stations – an option that reduces wait time for all guests. Panera kiosks are just one of a series of integrated technologies our stores have introduced in recent years to enhance our guest experience. It’s all part of our growth plan!

Also part of the plan: partnership building and more café locations. Since we acquired the 21 bakery-cafés in Cincinnati in April of 2016, we’ve taken steps to grow the brand’s overall presence in the market with the recent launch of small order delivery, the addition of a drive-thru to the Finneytown location earlier this year, and the development of large-scale partnerships with the Cincinnati Reds and University of Cincinnati.

In addition to ongoing business objectives, Covelli Enterprises plans to maintain its strategic focus on community involvement and philanthropy within the Cincinnati area. Panera has supported such local organizations as Freestore Foodbank, Shared Harvest Foodbank, the Mason Food Pantry and the American Cancer Society of Southwest Ohio for many years. The Covelli acquisition in 2016 opened the doors for new strategic partnerships with local non-profit organizations like the Disabled American Veterans, Cincinnati Toys for Tots, Mercy Health Foundation, St. Elizabeth Foundation, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, among others.

Our excitement about growing this brand in our home state Ohio is hard to contain. We’ve got big plans for Panera in Ohio, and our growth in Cincinnati is a key part of those plans. We can’t wait!