Panera Brands CEO Jose Duenas steps down, CFO to fill in

Panera Bread’s parent company announced Tuesday that CEO Jose Dueñas is stepping down, effective immediately.

The change in leadership is the latest challenge to the company’s plans to go public eventually, following several years of hurdles.

Panera Brands CFO Paul Carbone will step in as interim chief executive while the board searches for a permanent replacement to lead the company, which includes Panera Bread, Einstein Bros. and Caribou Coffee.

Dueñas plans to stick around through the end of March as a special advisor, the company said. He took over as CEO of Panera Brands in July 2023 after four years leading bagel chain Einstein Bros.

JAB Holding, the investment arm of the Reimann family, bought Panera Bread in 2017 for $7.5 billion, taking it private and then forming Panera Brands with some of its other acquisitions.

JAB has been trying to take Panera public again for years. In 2022, Panera scrapped a deal with Danny Meyer’s special purpose acquisition company, citing market conditions.

In the same 2023 announcement tapping Dueñas as its latest CEO, Panera said the leadership transition is to prepare for an eventual initial public offering. Months later, in December 2023, the company confidentially filed for an IPO.

It has yet to go public, following lawsuits tied to its heavily caffeinated Charged Lemonade, a rocky year for the restaurant industry and a sluggish market for IPOs in 2024.