The first 15 of the Panera locations will open under an agreement between the Richmond Heights company and the first of two planned developers of the company's concept in Arizona. The new franchise group, which will develop the 15 bakery-cafes through 2011, is headed by Steven J. Morris, according to Mike Kupstas, SVP and chief franchise officer of Panera. Morris is a former owner and operator of eight McDonald's Restaurants in the Denver area who began his career as a.CPA with Coopers & Lybrand and four years later joined McDonald's Restaurants as an owner- operator.

Panera Bread owns and franchises bakery-cafes under the Panera Bread and Saint Louis Bread Co. names, with 489 franchised and 212 company-owned locations in 35 states. The company expects to develop 150 to 160 new locations in 2005, of which 70 will be company-owned and 80 to 90 will be franchised, according to Panera's quarterly financial report, which was issued at the end of October.

The latest financial report covered the third fiscal quarter of 2004, which ended Oct. 2, and showed that the bakery-café company earned more than $8.5 million for the quarter, a 22% increase for the quarter on a year-to-year basis and also a 22% increase to 28 cents on a per share basis. Total revenues for the 12 weeks ended October 2 increased 32.5% to $113.8 million, compared to $85.9 million for the 12 weeks ended October 4, 2003. Panera's most recent comparable sales report, released last week, showed a 5% increase system-wide, with company-owned stores increasing sales by 5.8% and franchisees increasing by 4.6%.