Au Bon Pain

At Au Bon Pain we are committed to going “Beyond the Ordinary” in every facet of the fast-casual dining experience. We welcome our guests with a warm, comfortable cafe setting; a friendly, hospitable customer service smile; and countless fresh, innovative and healthy menu choices. Our experience has shown us that when the most basic and ordinary restaurant elements take the turn towards extraordinary; we get a winning combination that has been the cornerstone of our success over the years.

Franchise Details
Investment Amount: More than $500,000 Agreement Length: 000 years
Franchise Fee: $30000 Royalty Fee: 5%
Company Established: 1978 Franchising since: 1978
Franchised Units: 71 Total Units: 219
Earnings Claim: Yes Financial Assitance: Yes

About Us

In 2008, Au Bon Pain celebrated a 30th anniversary! We attribute our achievement, in part, to our outstanding franchise partners. We recognize the fundamental role that franchising has played in our three decades of growth, and we understand the importance of our franchisee's contributions in helping us build the brand.

Au Bon Pain is a fast casual bakery café that operates in visible urban corners and crossroads including office buildings, transportation centers, hotels, shopping malls, hospitals and universities.  The Au Bon Pain Franchise has recently introduced a new suburban concept, which will bring the urban marketplace experience to the suburbs.

The Au Bon Pain Franchise has transformed itself into lively, bustling urban marketplaces where guests personally select their menu choices from individual stations located throughout the café.  We have taken steps to ensure the menu continues to provide distinctively tasting items that reflect and reinforce their bakery roots such as our new Artisan bread collection, which is made of organic flour.

As part of the Au Bon Pain focus on nutrition, recipes for muffins, bagels and cookies have been re-engineered to be zero grams trans fat. In addition, nutrition kiosks have been added to the cafés to allow guests the information to make the right choices.

Au Bon Pain cafés feature a new décor that includes new S-shaped tables to allow guests to interact; comfortable bench seating lit by Philippe Starck's "Romeo Moon" lights, computer accessibility and simplified menu boards that are color-coded by menu categories.

Corporate Support

The key to Au Bon Pain’s continued success is its people. From the customer service representatives and sandwich makers in the cafés to the President and CEO in the Support Center, we have assembled a winning team that prides itself on an owner/operator attitude. We have built a world class organization where each department is committed to growing the business with financially responsible business practices and a teaching and learning culture.

From the purchasing team who works diligently with suppliers to negotiate the terms that keep our café costs in line; to our operations team who works to ensure clean, safe cafes and guest satisfaction; to our IT team who works to provide the most current technological solutions for maintaining our competitive edge; each department contributes to bottom line profits and plays a critical role in the success of the entire company.

Growth Plans

Au Bon Pain’s future is bright! Our plan is to take advantage of an exploding market segment and accelerate our franchise development in both domestic and international territories. In order to do this, we’re looking for qualified and enthusiastic franchise partners with experience and expertise to help us grow the brand within our five (5) preferred trade channels.

The breadth and flexibility of our five select trade channels gives our brand a powerful competitive advantage in the bakery café segment of our industry.

Preferred trade channels include:

  • City-center office buildings
  • Transportation centers (airports, train stations, etc)
  • Hospitals
  • Universities
  • Malls

Criteria – Domestic

Because we want to prepare our franchise partners for optimal success from the beginning, we only sign Area Development Agreements (ADA) based on a territorial market with a minimum unit potential of 10-20 locations. (We do not sell single unit agreements.) This ADA multi-unit potential enables our franchisees to build a significant business in an area with solid earnings potential.

In order to be considered for an Au Bon Pain franchise, you must have the financial and management resources necessary to develop multiple cafes.

Criteria include:

  • Open cafes in one of the listed expansion areas.
  • Offer quality real estate sites in the selected territory.
  • Sign an ADA for a minimum of 10 units.
  • Have a liquid net worth of $350k per unit, or approximately $3-4M.
  • Provide poof of financing from a bank or other financial institution.
  • Offer multi-unit restaurant business experience.
  • Offer an established management infrastructure within the market you wish to franchise.
  • Willingness to adhere to the ABP system.
  • A strong desire to succeed, work hard and be part of a winning team.
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