Panera Brands CEO José Alberto Dueñas is stepping down, the company announced on Tuesday, the latest in a series of changes at the operator of fast-casual and coffee brands.
Paul Carbone, the company’s CFO, was named interim CEO effective immediately.
Dueñas will remain with Panera, the parent company of Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels, through March as a senior advisor.
Patrick Grismer, Panera Brands’ board chair, credited Dueñas with “transforming the menu, improving restaurant-level margins and enhancing organizational agility.” He called Dueñas "a well-respected industry veteran with a tremendous track-record of success.”
Dueñas’ departure comes less than two years after he was appointed CEO.
Carbone joined Panera as CFO in 2023. He had spent five years with Dunkin’ Brands as CFO from 2012 to 2017. He has also been CFO of Yeti Holdings and Shark Ninja.
The move follows several changes at the company in just the past six months. Media reports last year said the company plans to sell its smaller brands Caribou and Einstein, just three years after the chains were all combined under the Panera Brands umbrella.
It reshuffled its board in November. Mike Tattersfield, the former CEO of Krispy Kreme who was named chairman less than a year earlier, left the board, ceding that title to Grismer. Dave Deno, former CEO of Bloomin’ Brands, joined the company’s board.
That move came less than two months after flagship chain Panera Bread laid off workers at its two support centers in St. Louis and Newton, Massachusetts. Earlier in the year the chain closed a pair of dough-making plants, leading to layoffs.
The company has faced various lawsuits, too, over deaths connected to its caffeinated Charged Lemonade and over a data breach involving corporate files last year. One of the Charged Lemonade lawsuits has since been settled.
Meanwhile, Panera Bread last year overhauled its menu, one of the most comprehensive in the fast-casual chain’s history.
All this came amid a backdrop of a planned IPO. Panera Brands has long signaled its intention to go public, starting in 2021. But various issues have largely prevented that. The IPO markets froze in late 2021 as inflation and rising interest rates took hold. Public company investors also turned skeptical on restaurants, generally.
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