Atlanta Bread Company

Did You Know?

• In 2004, the company had 5,000 employees and 170 locations in 25 states.
• In 2011, Atlanta Bread Company ranked number 11 on the SBA's list of the 25 worst-performing large franchises.
• As of November 2025, the chain has 9 locations in Georgia and North Carolina.

History

Atlanta Bread Company got its start in 1993 when Robert and Richard Auffenberg opened a single restaurant in Sandy Springs, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metro area. The next year, Jerry Couvaras, originally from South Africa and a former investment banker, moved to Atlanta, came across the restaurant, and took a job managing a location in Marietta, Georgia. By 1995, Jerry Couvaras had been named president and CEO, while his brother Basil Couvaras became COO.

Around that time, the brothers began selling franchises under the Atlanta Bread Company name, and the chain started expanding nationwide. In 1999, the company was recognized as one of the fastest-growing franchises in the United States, with ambitions to quickly double its number of locations. That same year, the Couvaras brothers settled a lawsuit the Auffenbergs had filed the year before, which claimed the brothers had unfairly taken control and ownership of the business.

The settlement required the Couvaras brothers to pay the Auffenbergs millions of dollars in royalties spread over 15 years. In March 2004, Jerry Couvaras was arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa, on fraud charges after about 2,000 South Africans lost a total of $5.54 million in an investment scheme that collapsed in 1993 following the liquidation of two investment companies. These charges were not connected to Atlanta Bread Company. While Jerry Couvaras remained president and CEO, Basil Couvaras took over running the company, and Jerry stayed in Johannesburg to resolve the charges.

Basil Couvaras was later charged in the same case. In November 2004, both brothers pleaded guilty to a banking violation, paid fines, and had the remaining fraud charges dismissed. Jerry Couvaras said the charges stemmed from a decade-old lawsuit that had already been settled, and that paying the fine was the fastest way to get back to business.