Panera Bread Company, a retailer of artisan bread and quick casual/specialty foods, announced it has equipped 325 locations in 27 states with free high-speed broadband wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi).

"Panera Bread is now the largest provider of free Wi-Fi Internet access in
the United States," said Ron Shaich, Panera Bread chairman and chief executive officer. "We are firmly committed to providing free broadband wireless Internet access as a convenient and reliable service to all customers in existing and emerging markets and remain on an aggressive build-out schedule of 375 locations by calendar year-end and 500 locations in the coming twelve months." As of April 17, 2004, Panera Bread operated 637 bakery-cafes. The company continues to grow expecting to open a total of 140 to 150 locations this year and incorporating free Wi-Fi in those expansion plans. Full Story...