Atlanta Bread Company is a privately owned American chain of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with 9 locations in Georgia and North Carolina. Its headquarters are in Smyrna, Georgia, a suburb northwest of Atlanta. Offerings include bakery items, pasta, salads, sandwiches, soups, and specialty drinks.

Aside from the bakery section, Atlanta Bread has a regular menu for dine-in or takeout including: flatbreads, paninis, salads, sandwiches, side choices, and soups, as well as coffee, espresso drinks, frozen drinks, fruit smoothies, hot chocolate, iced drinks, lattes, lemonade, and tea. Despite the similar name and type of outlets, Atlanta Bread carries no relation to the American bakery-café chain Panera Bread.

History

Atlanta Bread was founded by Robert and Richard Auffenberg while his brother, Basil Couvaras, became the chief operating officer (COO) that year. By that time, the Couvaras brothers were selling franchises under the Atlanta Bread Company name.

In 1999, Atlanta Bread Company was among the fastest-growing franchises in the United States, with plans to rapidly double its number of restaurant locations. That year, the Couvaras brothers settled a lawsuit filed by the Auffenbergs the previous year which alleged that they unfairly gained control and ownership of the business. The settlement required that the Couvaras brothers pay the Auffenbergs millions of dollars in royalties over the next 15 years. The charges were unrelated to the Atlanta Bread Company. Basil Couvaras was appointed to run the company while Jerry Couvaras — who remained as president and CEO — stayed in Johannesburg until the charges could be resolved. Revenue and store locations decreased significantly after 2004, partially because of poor locations and issues with franchisees that included legal problems; the company had sued franchisees or had been sued eight times between 2001 and 2011.

In 2010, the company had a revenue of $122 million.

In 2011, the company had 74 locations in 20 states, including 13 company-owned stores; 44 stores had been closed since 2008, when the Great Recession began. Jerry Couvaras stated that the store closings were primarily part of a business strategy in order to gain revenue to remodel existing stores that were left open. Between 2001 and 2011, 66 loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA) were made to Atlanta Bread Company franchisees. Half of the loans failed, totaling $32.8 million, with a loss of $5 million for the United States federal government. As of 2011, Atlanta Bread Company ranked at number 11 on the SBA website's list of the 25 worst-performing large franchises.

As of November 2025, there are 9 restaurant locations in Georgia and North Carolina.

See also

  • List of bakery cafés

References

  • Official website