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| "The new Panda Express services were officially launched at an event at Edinburgh Zoo attended by Stagecoach Group Chief Executive Sir Brian Souter, Stagecoach Group Non-Executive Director Ewan Brown and Hugh Roberts, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Zoo". |
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| "Giant pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang arrived at Edinburgh Zoo from China in December last year and are the only giant pandas in the UK. The pair, who will live at the zoo for the next 10 years, have proved so popular that already visitor numbers at the zoo have soared by 200%. Panda viewings are done in half-hour slots and around 200 people are able to see the animals during every half-hour window". |
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| "In 1983, Cherng launched Panda Express, opening the first unit in a mall in Glendale, California. It proved to be a very successful beginning for what would become PMC’s chief chain. Because the Panda Express was one of the few quick-service restaurants to evolve from a full-service concept and because it introduced a new food to that market, it found a good market niche, close to a wide-open field, in fact. It joined authentic Mandarin cuisine to a sector historically dominated by hamburgers and fried chicken. Panda Express sent the company into a growth cycle that by the year 2000 had not abated". |
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| "Panda Management Company, Inc. (PMC), based in Southern California, has grown dynamically ever since 1983 when it opened its first Panda Express, its most successful operation. As that name suggests, Panda Express units are fast-service Chinese restaurants, now found in over 34 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Japan". |
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| "Andrew J.C. Cherng and his father, master Chinese chef Ming-Tsai Cherng, founded what would evolve into Panda Management when, in 1973, they opened the first of seven Panda Inns, full-service restaurants located in Southern California. The initial site was in Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles, one of America’s great ethnic melting pots. The Cherngs had migrated to the United States from Japan in the 1960s after first getting there from their native China by way of Hong Kong and Taipei, and their establishment was one of the first in the area to modify authentic Mandarin and Szechwan dishes to complement the area’s Oriental cuisine". |
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| Initially, the Cherngs were determined to expand in the full-service Chinese restaurant market, a tough business in California, thanks to its large Asian-American population. Although the new company was able to open additional full service restaurants, the younger Cherng soon saw that fast food, drivethru restaurants were a national craze in the United States. He also realized that Southern California offered an excellent market for experimenting with an Oriental food version of that kind of operation. Accordingly, he set out to expand into the quick service restaurant field. |
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| "In 1983, Cherng launched Panda Express, opening the first unit in a mall in Glendale, California. It proved to be a very successful beginning for what would become PMC’s chief chain. Because the Panda Express was one of the few quick-service restaurants to evolve from a full-service concept and because it introduced a new food to that market, it found a good market niche, close to a wide-open field, in fact. It joined authentic Mandarin cuisine to a sector historically dominated by hamburgers and fried chicken. Panda Express sent the company into a growth cycle that by the year 2000 had not abated". |
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| "Panda Management responded the market surge with very quick growth. By April of 1994, it was operating 125 units in 21 states, Washington, D.C., and Japan. Sixty of these were financed by money generated internally from sales that in 1993 had reached $100 million and $112 million by May of the next year. By that time, Panda Express was running neck and neck with Manchu Wok, which, with far more units, was just keeping even in sales. By 1993 it had even fallen far behind Panda Express in the number of its new openings, though it was still the dominate express Chinese food chain in the eastern part of the United States". |
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| "Every year, Panda makes it a mission to focus on one very important aspect of our recipe for success. Whether the spot-light is on food excellence, outstanding service or enhanced teamwork, each Panda employee becomes dedicated in a special way to making that focus a priority during the year. … We at Panda truly believe that the quality of service that we provide to our customers each and every day forms the links that hold our business together. We are dedicated to doing everything in our power to deliver no less than exceptional customer service to every customer every day". |
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| "In 1994, in part to help make its expansion and diversification plans go smoothly, Panda revamped its upper management team. In January of that year, it recruited and hired Joseph Micatrotto as president and chief operating officer. Although Andrew Cherng remained chairman and CEO, he gave Micatrotto considerable latitude in mapping out new directions for the company. Micatrotto, who grew up in a “little Italy neighborhood” of Cleveland, came to Panda from a 14-year career at Chi-Chi’s, a Louisville, Kentucky-based chain of Mexican restaurants. The company also hired Russell Bendel as senior vice-president of operations. He joined Panda after resigning his post as COO at El Torito, another chain of Mexican restaurants based in Irvine, California. Although neither Micatrotto nor Bendel had knowledge of Oriental cuisine, they had the managerial, organizational, and leadership skills that PMC needed". |
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