Yum Brands and 7-Eleven Mother Company Buys Bakery-Cafe Au Bon Pain

Yum Brands and 7-Eleven’s franchisee has bought the bakery-cafe chain Au Bon Pain.

Ampex Brands is the mother company of various brands, including 400 Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s, and 7-Eleven, CNBC reports. According to the company’s Wednesday announcement, it has bought the bakery chain Au Bon Pain.

“Our [quick-service restaurant] brands performed extraordinarily well throughout the pandemic as guests moved to drive-thru,” Ampex CEO Tabbassum Mumtaz said in a statement. “That performance allowed us to diversify and jump on a great opportunity to reposition a legacy brand. The bakery café category will rebound, and Au Bon Pain is well-positioned to grow.”

Au Bon Pain has 171 locations, which will rack up Ampex’s revenue by 10 percent a year. It’s also working on building 131 additional locations. Ampex bought the cafe-bakery chain from Panera Bread subsidiary, ABP Corp.

During the 1980s, restaurant entrepreneur Ron Schaich combined his cookie store with Au Bon Pain and then purchased Panera Bread, which was previously named Saint Louis Bread Company. Ten years later, Schaich sold Au Bon Pain.