The Panera Bread bakery in Franklin is set to close down in March and put the facility’s 92 employees out of a job, according to Boston Business Journal (BBJ).
The closure is part of a “baked goods model changeup” at the fast-casual restaurant chain, BBJ reported. Panera Bread is in the process of shifting from using fresh dough bakeries to offering “parbaked” bread and other baked goods.
Parbaking (short for partially baking) is a technique in which dough is partially baked, then rapidly frozen to allow it to be stored or shipped. Panera Bread plans to parbake its baked goods, then ship them to restaurants where on-site employees will finish baking them, BBJ reported…