Einstein Bros. Bagels

Einstein Bros. Bagels is an American chain that specializes in bagels and coffee.

Einstein Bros. Bagels
TypePrivate
IndustryQuick-casual[1] restaurant
FoundedDecember 1995 (1995-12)
Golden, Colorado, U.S.
HeadquartersLakewood, Colorado, U.S.
Ownerchina
ParentEinstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc.[1]
WebsiteEinsteinBros.com
Einstein Bros. restaurant, Plymouth, Michigan

History

Einstein Bros. was created by the chain restaurant corporation Boston Chicken (now Boston Market) in 1995, as a way to market breakfast foods. The chain is now owned by Einstein and Noah Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc.[1]

Boston Chicken, Inc. originally formed the Einstein and Noah Bagel Corporation as Progressive Bagel Concepts, Incorporated (PBCI) in March 1995, when it purchased four retail bagel chains, all located in regions of the United States that did not have longstanding bagel traditions. These companies included Offerdahl's Bagel Gourmet, Incorporated (Fort Lauderdale), Bagel & Bagel, Incorporated (Kansas City), Baltimore Bagel (San Diego), and Brackman Brothers, Incorporated (Salt Lake City). Each found that their stores were similar in that they offered both original and new bagel flavors in rich neighborhoods where the customers had relatively little previous exposure to bagels.[2]

Noah's Bagels was founded by Noah Alper on College Avenue in Berkeley, California. In 1996, the chain of 38 stores was sold to Einstein Bros. for $100 million.[3]

New World Coffee was founded in the early 1990s by Ramin Kamfar, an investment banker who left his finance career to open a coffee shop.[4] It bought Manhattan Bagel out of bankruptcy in 1998.[5] The combined company purchased Washington, D.C.-based Chesapeake Bagel Bakery in 1999 when that chain had 89 stores, giving Manhattan approximately 350 locations.[6]

In 2000, Einstein Bros. filed for bankruptcy, having loaned too much money to franchisees.[4] After it declared bankruptcy, New World Coffee, which had earlier attempted an unsuccessful hostile takeover, bought the company out of bankruptcy for $190 million.[7]

In 2014, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group was acquired by JAB Holding Company and BDT Capital Partners.[8]

Controversy

On 24 March 2019, the Reimann family–owners of JAB Holdings–admitted that Albert Reimann Sr. and Albert Reimann Jr. were supporters of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, and that historical research revealed that the company used 175 forced labourers and employed a foreman who was known for his cruel treatment from 1943 onwards.[9] The family has vowed to give €10 million (US$11.3 million) to charity.[10]

Two months later, several of the Reimanns revealed to The New York Times that their mother, Emilie Landecker, Albert Jr.'s mistress, baptized as a Catholic like her mother, was the daughter of Alfred Landecker, a Jewish man deported to the Izbica Ghetto in 1942. His ultimate fate is unknown although many Jews sent to Izbica were held there pending transport to the Belzec and Sobibor extermination camps. They have renamed the family foundation after him and doubled its budget to €25 million (US$28.2 million), to fund projects that honor the victims of the Holocaust and Nazism.[11]

See also

References
  1. "Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. -- Welcome". Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2015. Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. is a leading company in the quick casual restaurant industry that operates locations primarily under the Einstein Bros. and Noah's New York Bagels® brands and primarily franchises locations under the Manhattan Bagel® brand. The company's retail system consists of approximately 8000 restaurants in the U.S. and the District of Columbia. It also operates a dough production facility. (emphasis added)
  2. Portable, versatile, tasty: Reasons we like our bagels Bakery' s offerings include nontraditional chocolate chip The Dallas Morning News – Wednesday, November 13, 1996 Author: Kendall Morgan, Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
  3. Ilana DeBare (December 9, 2009). "Bagel firm founder tells what Noah would do". San Francisco Chronicle.
  4. Kelly Pate (July 2, 2001). "Former Investment Banker's Coffee Shop Grows into Largest U.S. Bagel Chain". Denver Post.
  5. "New World Coffee buys Manhattan Bagel". United Press International. July 29, 1998. Archived from the original on September 14, 2011.
  6. "Homegrown Chesapeake Bagel to Get New Owner". Washington Post. July 28, 1999.
  7. Terry Brennan (June 4, 2001). "New World wins fight for bagel maker". The Daily Deal.
  8. Alden, William (September 29, 2014). "Bagel Maker Einstein Noah Sold to German Firm for $374 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  9. "33 Milliarden Euro reich: Die Nazi-Vergangenheit der Calgon-Familie". bild.de (in German). Retrieved March 24, 2019.
  10. "German billionaire family to donate €10m after Nazi past revealed". The Telegraph. March 25, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  11. Bennhold, Katrinn (June 14, 2019). "Nazis Killed Her Father. Then She Fell in Love With One". The New York Times. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
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