Panera Bread is planning to go public and has secured an unconventional investment from Danny Meyer’s special-purpose acquisition company, adding to one of the busiest restaurant IPO seasons in years.

Panera Brands—the privately held company that owns Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels—on Tuesday said it plans to file for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Panera hasn’t determined the price range, number of shares it plans to offer or a date for the IPO, the company...

Panera Bread is planning to go public and has secured an unconventional investment from Danny Meyer’s special-purpose acquisition company, adding to one of the busiest restaurant IPO seasons in years.

Panera Brands—the privately held company that owns Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels—on Tuesday said it plans to file for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Panera hasn’t determined the price range, number of shares it plans to offer or a date for the IPO, the company said Tuesday.

JAB Holding Co., a European investment firm that is the majority investor in Panera Brands, plans to continue to be a long-term shareholder of the company post-IPO, a firm spokesman said.

Restaurateur Danny Meyer also said Tuesday that he will personally invest in Panera Brands at the time of its IPO. Additionally, Mr. Meyer will back Panera through his SPAC, USHG Acquisition Corp.

The SPAC, which is backed by Mr. Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group LLC, has agreed to invest its holdings in Panera once public, Panera and Mr. Meyer said.

A SPAC is a shell firm that typically raises money from investors, lists on a stock exchange, then merges with a private company to take it public. In this case, Mr. Meyer is aiming to use his SPAC to invest in Panera, while it pursues a traditional IPO, a unique tactic similar in some ways to one attempted by hedge-fund manager William Ackman earlier this year.

Mr. Ackman attempted to use some of his SPAC’s money to take a roughly 10% stake in Universal Music Group. He then aimed to use leftover funds for future deals, making his structure even more complicated than Mr. Meyer’s. The billionaire eventually abandoned the deal, saying regulators questioned several elements of the proposed transaction.

Mr. Meyer’s SPAC, which has about $285 million on hand, will go toward the Panera investment, Mr. Meyer and Panera said. The SPAC will exchange its shares for Panera stock through a wholly owned subsidiary as part of the deal. Mr. Meyer, who founded Shake Shack Inc., is slated to become a lead independent director of Panera’s board upon completion.

Mr. Meyer, chief executive and founder of New York City-based Union Square Hospitality Group, said he hoped to extend lessons learned in hospitality to the group of fast-casual chains. “We’ve been in the restaurant business for 35 years operating and creating all kinds of different restaurants,” he said in an interview.

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Because SPAC investors can pull their money out of the deal before it closes, JAB has agreed to invest additional money to offset any withdrawals. That arrangement gives Panera more certainty about the size of the cash infusion from the SPAC.

Aided by SPACs, this year is the single biggest IPO year on record by money raised, according to Dealogic.

A rush of restaurants have chosen traditional IPO routes to go public. Coffee chain Dutch Bros Inc., doughnut maker Krispy Kreme Inc., breakfast and brunch spot First Watch Restaurant Group Inc. and hot dog company Portillo’s Inc. have all gone public this year through IPOs. Salad chain Sweetgreen Inc. last month filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange.

Panera Bread Co. was public for more than 25 years until 2017, when it was bought by JAB to add to its expanding consumer portfolio. The deal for nearly 2,000 cafes was valued at roughly $7.16 billion at the time, excluding debt.

JAB’s coffee holdings have undergone a transformation recently. It took the global coffee company Peet’s public in Europe last year, and its Krispy Kreme brand made its debut in the U.S. public markets in July. Panera said over the summer that it would sell bakery brand Au Bon Pain to restaurant operator Ampex Brands.

In August, JAB combined Panera Bread with Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. under one unit.

Mr. Meyer said he first started talking with Panera Chief Executive Niren Chaudhary in the spring. Mr. Chaudhary said the pandemic led the company to invest more in its to-go operations and that it is in a stronger position to return to the public market today.

Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com and Amrith Ramkumar at amrith.ramkumar@wsj.com