Keep pulling the thread on Ron Shaich.
Ron Shaich sold Panera Bread in 2017 for approximately $7.5 billion.
During Ron Shaich's final decade as CEO, Panera Bread was the best-performing restaurant stock and the second-best consumer stock on the S&P.
The company formed by merging a cookie store with Au Bon Pain in 1981 was ultimately sold for $7.8 billion in 2017.
In his last 20 years as a public company CEO, Ron Shaich claims Panera Bread's stock outperformed Warren Buffett's.
The fast casual restaurant category, which includes Panera Bread, is now a $300 billion market.
In 1998, Ron Shaich made the strategic decision to sell all company assets except for Panera Bread to focus all capital and human resources on that single brand.
From the time Panera Bread became the company's sole focus around 1999, its stock increased 100-fold before being sold.
Panera Bread's stock, which traded at $3 per share after its restructuring, was sold 17 years later for $315 per share in a $7.8 billion deal.
Panera Bread invested $150 million in a major transformation that included digital access, loyalty programs, and clean food initiatives.
By 2016, following a major transformation, Panera Bread's comparable store sales were growing at double-digit rates and its EBITDA was up 35%.
Ron Shaich's strategy for Cava involved acquiring its larger, 250-restaurant competitor Zoe's Kitchen to create a dominant player in the Mediterranean food category.
Ron Shaich personally invested $150 million to help finance Cava's acquisition of Zoe's Kitchen, becoming chairman and one of its largest shareholders.