Panera to close Franklin fresh-dough facility by March 27, laying off 92

Panera will permanently close its fresh-dough production facility at 290 Beaver St. in Franklin, Massachusetts, and lay off 92 employees, according to a WARN notice filed with the state. The company plans to cease operations at the site by March 27, 2026, with separations scheduled in a window from March 25 to March 27.

The WARN filing lists the affected jobs and support measures. Roles identified include truck drivers, dough mixers, dough packers, pan washers and supervisors. Panera is offering a severance package, outplacement services and assistance locating other jobs within the company, and the notice schedules an outplacement job fair for February 23, 2026. Panera has also issued public statements saying it values its team members and will provide resources and guidance during the transition.

Panera says the closure is part of a nationwide shift in how the company supplies its bakery-cafes. A Panera spokesperson described the new model as a partnership with third-party artisan bakery producers that craft par-baked or partially baked frozen products using Panera recipes and ingredients, which Panera cafes then finish baking on site. In a written statement, the company said, "Last year, we began a nationwide transition to a new baking model that helps us to have greater availability of the breads our guests love, ensuring quality while allowing us to expand innovation and variety." The company added, "We deeply value our team members and are committed to supporting them through this transition with resources, career opportunities and guidance," and noted that "Great bread is at the heart of the Panera experience and will always be the foundation of who we are."

The move reflects a broader operational change that reduces the need for in-house dough production and shifts labor demand toward external manufacturing partners and cafe-level finishing. For frontline production employees at the Franklin facility, the closure ends local, steady production roles that included mixing, packing and equipment sanitation. Panera says it will help some workers find other roles within the company, but the WARN notice characterizes the separations as permanent layoffs tied to the change in the baking model.

Company footprint figures vary in recent reporting. Panera's website listed 2,239 bakery-cafes in the United States and Canada as of Oct. 28, 2025, and listed 64 locations in Massachusetts; other counts published around the same time have put the national total slightly higher and Massachusetts locations lower. Historically, Panera operated a network of fresh-dough facilities; industry reporting noted there were 24 such facilities in 2016, a number that has since changed as the company redesigns its supply chain.

The Franklin closure arrives amid several recent facility shutdowns and workforce reductions in the state, underscoring questions about how shifts in corporate sourcing and automation will affect midlevel production jobs. In the near term, affected employees will look to the severance and outplacement resources the company listed in the WARN notice and to any internal openings Panera can offer; longer term, the shift to third-party par-baked sourcing will be a bellwether for how bakery-cafe chains balance quality, availability and labor costs across their networks.