About the Franchisee

Covelli Enterprises is an entity formed to develop and manage the franchise rights of Panera Bread bakery-cafés in the Northeast Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and West Palm Beach, FL. With close to 200 bakery-cafés in these markets, Covelli Enterprises is the single largest franchisee of Panera Bread, LLC and is the 5th largest restaurant franchisee in the nation.

Although he opened his first Panera Bread bakery-café in 1998, Sam Covelli, owner and operator of Covelli Enterprises, LLC, had previously been no stranger to the restaurant business. Covelli's father, Albert, was the owner/operator of several McDonald's franchises, so Covelli grew up in the industry. He eventually worked his way up from an entry-level position in the company to become the largest franchisee in McDonald's history worldwide with 43 units at the end of 1997.

As a McDonald's owner/operator, Covelli accomplished the most awards ever in the McDonald's system and received the highest honor within the McDonald organization, "The McDonald's Golden Arch Award." This award is given every two years to the McDonald's owner/operator who exemplifies and consistently maintains the highest rated restaurant operations and business practices.

After a over a decade of success with the McDonald's brand, Covelli decided to sell the 43 McDonald's Restaurants he owned to twelve different operators and embark on a brand-new concept; Panera Bread bakery-cafés. The first Panera Bread bakery-café opened by Covelli Enterprises was in Boardman, Ohio in 1998. By the end of 2011, Covelli will own and operate more than 200 Panera Bread bakery-cafes in four states: Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Florida with gross sales revenues exceeding $400 million.

Covelli Enterprises is headquartered in Warren, Ohio, and currently employs over 20,000 people. Since the first cafés were opened, over 800 additional jobs have been created within the corporation with an estimated 70 managerial promotions, as well. The expansion of the corporation continues with its recent expansion into the Columbus, Ohio market, acquiring 20 existing bakery-cafés in December 2010. Plans are in place to open another 20 or more in the area over the next year.

Covelli Enterprises continually wins awards for exceptional service, cleanliness, customer service and expansive growth of their locations. Year after year, Panera Bread wins "Best of Awards" in all of the communities in which they are located. Covelli Enterprises also prides itself on giving back to these communities. In 2009 Covelli Enterprises donated more than $10 million in unsold bread and bakery product to local food banks, hunger relief agencies and other community organizations through the Day-End Dough-Nation program. Covelli Panera Bread cafés also partner with local non-profit organizations through the Operation Dough-Nation program. Through this program, monetary donations are collected to benefit community partners who include but are not limited to: Toys for Tots; Relay for Life; Second Harvest Food Bank; Humane Society; Susan G. Komen; the Boys and Girls Club of America; American Red Cross; Youngstown State University; the United Way and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, Coats for Kids and Breast Cancer Network of Strength.

Over the summer of 2009, Covelli Enterprises took over the naming rights to the previously named Chevrolet Centre arena located in downtown Youngstown, now called the Covelli Centre. The $42 million dollar arena hosts concerts, hockey games and special events with its large seating capacity of 7,000. Covelli Enterprises also owns several O'Charley's Restaurants. In 2006, Covelli opened his first in Niles, Ohio and his second O'Charley's Restaurant in Erie, Pennsylvania in November of 2007. Since then he has open three additional sites in Boardman and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and Orlando, Florida. There are plans to continue the growth and open close to 50 O'Charley's Restaurants in the future.

For all his achievements, Covelli has earned numerous awards including: 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year for Northeast Ohio by Ernst & Young, Northeast Ohio Business Hall of Fame in 2005, YSU Alumni Association Distinguished Citizen of the Year, Youngstown Area Restaurateur of the Year, 2009 Ohio Entrepreneur of the Year and just recently named "Penguin of the Year" at Youngstown State University.

Sam Covelli takes pride in his accomplishments but continues to remain humble. Covelli describes his success saying, "I feel fortunate every day to be able to provide so many communities with great food, exceptional service and a warm gathering place. If we are even more fortunate," he remarks, "we plan on doing so for a very, very long time."

About Panera Bread

With the single goal of making great bread broadly available to consumers across America, Panera Bread freshly bakes more bread each day than any bakery-cafe concept in the country. Every day, at every location, trained bakers handcraft and bake each loaf from scratch, using all-natural ingredients to ensure the highest quality breads.

Panera Bread understands that great, freshly baked bread makes great meals - including made-to-order sandwiches, tossed-to-order salads and soup served in bread bowls. Our menu items, which start with our all natural, preservative-free breads, feature only the freshest, highest quality ingredients.

Visit Panerabread.com for more information.