The chief financial officer is rising at Panera Bread. The company said president Neal Yanofsky has resigned and will be replaced by a team of three executives: CFO Jeff Kip, CEO Ron Shaich, and executive vice president John Maguire.
Shares of Panera, the owner and franchiser of 1,137 bakery-cafes, are down 38 percent from their 52-week high.
The company reported that same-store sales at company-owned stores rose 3.8 percent for the five weeks ended November 27, while same-store sales at franchise-operated locations climbed 2.8 percent.
Kip’s responsibilities include overseeing the accounting and finance functions, risk management, financial planning, and investor relations.
He joined Panera in 2003 as vice president of corporate development and later became vice president of finance and planning. He was promoted to CFO in May 2006.
He also has a strong Wall Street background. Before coming to Panera, Kip was part of the media and entertainment investment banking team at UBS Warburg. Before that, he was an investment banker for Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance for consumer, retail, and industrial clients in both the public and private sectors.