A big change is coming to the way Panera bakes bread.

For years, the bakery chain has used off-premise “dough factories” to mix and deliver dough to its shops, where Panera staff shape it for the brand’s signature bread and bagels.

Soon, Panera will partner with third-party bakeries to create the dough for its lineup of bread. The bakeries will partially bake the dough and freeze it. Then, the partially frozen bread will be delivered to Panera, where staff will finish baking the bread and bagels in-house.

Panera also plans to shutter all its remaining dough factories over the next two years, reports the Daily Mail.

The move is part of the chain’s shift toward an “on-demand” baking model.

In a statement to Daily Mail, Panera said the new model will help the company have “greater availability” of the bread.

The switch to par-baked bread is part of a product innovation strategy Panera started implementing last year. In 2024, the bakery chain announced its largest “menu transformation ever,” focusing on innovating the core Panera items customers love the most: soups, salads, sandwiches and mac and cheese.