MEDFORD, Ore. – You may have noticed the new drive-thru building at the corner of Garfield and Highway 99 in South Medford.
That is Panera Bread.
“We’re super excited and ready,” Dave Davis said. “We’ve been waiting on this location for an extended period of time and we just can’t wait to open up and serve the community.”
Dave Davis is the regional vice president of Manna Development, a managing partner who franchises over a hundred Panera Bread locations.
He said the Medford location will open its doors on August 21 at 6 a.m..sou
“We wanted to expand our footprint throughout the state, that was kind of our goal,” Davis said. “Panera’s made it possible to open up a satellite location, that’s why we’re so excited to come to Medford.”
This will be the first store to arrive in southern Oregon with the closest location in Eugene.
In August 2020, it was announced a store would be opening in south Medford.
But the company dealt with several challenges leading to delays.
“The 2020 pandemic kind of affected a lot of things, especially when it came to supply chain,” Davis said. “And just because we’re such an expanding franchisee we have 6 more locations just this year in the pipe so we’ve had quite a bit of locations to come back and catch up during that two year break we had to take due to the pandemic.”
Davis said they plan to hire 70 employees to start.
They hope to expand that number to 80 or 90 in the near future.
August 21 will be a soft opening for the location.
The grand opening will take place on September 13 and the first 75 people in line will receive a tumbler cup and two free months of its ‘Unlimited Sip Club’ program.
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