Panera closes on $100M term loan

June 18, 2017, St. Louis, MO – Panera Bread Company recently secured a five-year $100-million term loan from
Bank of America, Wells Fargo and TD Bank. Proceeds from the loan will be
used for general corporate purposes, including the rollout of Panera 2.0.

June 18, 2017, St. Louis, MO – Panera Bread Company recently secured a five-year $100-million term loan from
Bank of America, Wells Fargo and TD Bank. Proceeds from the loan will be
used for general corporate purposes, including the rollout of Panera 2.0.

"This modest amount of debt is the next logical step in the evolution of
our thinking around capital structure," said Roger Matthews, Panera
Bread's chief financial officer, in a media statement. "As we continue to grow our store base,
invest in expanded growth opportunities and return capital to
shareholders through consistent share repurchase, we expect this debt
should allow us to achieve a range of objectives for shareholders.
However, nothing has changed in our commitment to maintain modest
leverage on the balance sheet as well as significant financial capacity
to be opportunistic."

The loan agreement provides an unsecured, five-year term loan in the
amount of $100 million and applies a floating rate of interest based on a
credit spread to LIBOR based on the Company's consolidated leverage
ratio. The current implied borrowing rate at the time of this loan is
approximately 1.15 per cent. The company's obligations under the term loan are
guaranteed by certain of its direct and indirect subsidiaries.