During the quarter Panera opened 24 restaurants, 13 company-owned and 11 franchised. This quarter, the company will have less openings than anticipated, with nine, instead of the previously projected 31. Executives blamed the slowdown, in part, on the difficulty of finding good sites.

Franchise operators are expected to open 19 this quarter and 35 to 45 over the following three months. The company currently operates 795 units and is on track to open a total of 155 restaurants over all of 2005.

Panera spent $15.2 million on capital expenditures during the quarter, and executives plan to shell out $95 million to $100 million on those expenses this year. For the current quarter they are also forecasting a 6.5% to 8% same-store sales rise.