When he and his father owned McDonald’s restaurants 20 years ago, they didn’t stop until they were the Big Macs — owning more of the fast-food franchises than anyone else in the country.
Covelli now has done the same thing with Panera Bread restaurants. He owns more of them — 250 and counting — than any other franchisee in the world.
He likes being the biggest and the best. And he likes being first.
Covelli, 63, doesn’t need to work in the traditional sense and could have retired long ago.
He laughs at the question of why he still awakens before dawn. The answer, in part, is so that he has time to make surprise visits to several of his Panera Bread restaurants before heading to his headquarters in Warren.
“I love it,” he says, broadening his smile. “When you can serve people great food, provide restaurants that have become meeting spots and resources for communities and then when you can match all of that with being able to help out charities that are really doing good work for people, who wouldn’t want to get up every morning and do this?”
Pointing to handwritten notes on a piece of lined paper on his desk, he says, “This is how many cookies we sold for our autism fundraiser — 40,000. Not bad. But we can do better. These organizations get every penny of what we sell these cookies for and, believe me, they need the money.”
Autism is one of the many causes adopted by Covelli and his 30,000 associates in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. Homelessness, hunger, education, breast cancer and poverty are some of the other issues he has been targeting through his company’s donations of about $26 million each year in food and cash.
The organizations that Covelli supports range from the Youngtown NAACP to the Cleveland Clinic. “I believe that part of being a good corporate citizen is making sure that you understand your communities and are giving to organizations that are making differences,” he says.
He set up his company so that philanthropy is an organic part of the operation.
Covelli Enterprises employs a marketing staff for each region. Those staff members spend significant amounts of their days working with community organizations, identifying ways that Covelli Enterprises can help.
Sometimes it’s end-of-the-day food donations to organizations that work with the poor, the hungry and the homeless. “I instruct all of our bakers to make far more of what they know they will sell that day so that we have food leftover to donate. We donate everything that wasn’t sold today,” he says.
There’s the Pink Ribbon Bagel classic, which happens in October, and has netted more than $1 million for breast cancer research or support organizations. “And don’t forget the Panerathon,” he says, springing out of his chair and heading over to a wall of pictures that chronicle the evolution of what has become one of the state’s largest breast cancer fundraisers.
In 2015, the run attracted more than 10,000 participants and raised almost $1.3 million for The Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Cancer Care Center at Mercy Health in Youngstown.
Sitting back at his desk for a moment and then rocketing up again to point to more pictures on the wall, he says, “I’ve talked about all of this as if this was about me. It wasn’t. We have an amazing team.”
He points to pictures of his staff, including some who have been with him back to the McDonald’s days two decades ago. “You couldn’t do this without the teamwork that we have, and some of them have been with our company for a long, long time,” he says.
Joyce Mayer, manager of Covelli’s Panera Bread in Austintown, says she is so honored to work with Covelli because of the positive impact she and others have made in the community.
“Mr. Covelli is a person of high integrity carrying on the legacy of his father,” she says. “Mr. Covelli and Covelli Enterprises have a huge impact on our community, from autism cookies, Pink Ribbon bagels and the Panerathon to giving job opportunities to countless members of many communities.”
“Panera Bread is now ‘the cool place to work,’ the place where kids come for their first job, and many make a career out of,” she adds. “I'm proud to be associated with Panera Bread and Covelli Enterprises.”
Covelli and his wife, Caryn, have been married for 30 years. He likes to tell the story of how he told Caryn on their first date 33 years ago that he would marry her one day. “It took me some time to convince her that she should accept, but I didn’t stop trying,” he says.
Their son, Albert, 27, is working in the business in Columbus. Middle daughter Candace, 28, is a jewelry designer in New York City, and youngest daughter, Danielle, 21, is a senior at The Ohio State University. “Where else would she be?” Covelli asks. On most cold days, he wears a coat with the Buckeye emblem boldly displayed across its back.
It’s no surprise that Covelli loves football and all sports, really. “I appreciate the dedication and hard work,” he says. And people appreciate that about him too.
Retired U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Nathaniel Jones, a Youngstown native living in Cincinnati, has been impressed with Covelli’s intense commitment to helping create opportunities for the less fortunate, especially those who are minorities.
“What particularly strikes me about Mr. Covelli is the emphasis he places on education and training for increased numbers of minorities to enter the workforce,” Jones says. “To ensure that this happens, he possesses an impressive willingness to support causes that lower the barriers minorities have traditionally faced, since his own life experience has sensitized him to the importance of opportunities to become prepared.”
In late February, the Laurel Highlands Council of the Boy Scouts of America, an organization of more than 25,000 Boy Scouts, recognized Covelli with its Whitney M. Young Award for the work that he’s done to help minorities.
Jones says this award and others affirm what he has long known about Covelli: “I have been involved in civil rights activities for well over 50 years. In my early years, the business community was generally a stumbling block to progress. A change has now taken place. An enlightened view toward social and economic change has been demonstrated by businesspersons resulting in more businesses stepping forward. Sam Covelli and Covelli Enterprises are in the vanguard of this change.”
In his hometown of Warren, Mayor William “Doug” Franklin calls Covelli “a pillar of the community.”
“From the selfless philanthropy and community engagement to the constant commitment toward the betterment of Warren, Mr. Covelli and Covelli Enterprises never stop advancing the interests of the City of Warren,” Franklin says.
“As a friend, I can always count on Sam for his sage counsel, willingness to lend his support to an effort and his unique ability to always build consensus,” he adds. “It is my honor to call Sam and the extended Covelli Enterprises family my friends.”
The president of the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Delos “Toby” Cosgrove, also has singled out Covelli as a community leader. The Cleveland Clinic has been a logical partner for Covelli Enterprises because of the company’s strong presence in Cleveland.
“Sam Covelli is a generous man who is concerned about the communities we serve. He sets the tone for his company,” Cosgrove says. “Through his leadership, Covelli Enterprises has become a terrific community partner of Cleveland Clinic, and we appreciate his example as a servant leader.”
In Elyria in late March, Covelli opened what was his 280th restaurant, but it was the 2,000th for Panera Bread, and it was celebrated in Covelli style. Top Panera Bread executives flew in and thousands jammed into the store for opening day.
A week before the opening, Covelli drove to the store to make sure everything was progressing. “I had to tell them to order a bigger sign,” he says. “The one that we put up first wasn’t big enough.”
Walking in the front door, he bent over to pick up a small leaf that had blown into the store. He looked around the store and his eyes fixed on the artwork on the wall -— abstract drawings of bagels. “That’s awfully small, isn’t it?” he asked.
Wayne Neuf, who has been working with Covelli for 19 years, smiled and said, “Already took care of it. We knew we’d want bigger. We’ve ordered them.”
Covelli was not satisfied, and he paced the floor along the front counter. “Will they be in before our grand opening?” he asked.
“Yes, they will be coming today.”
That was a good answer. Covelli stopped walking and looked around his newest store. “Look at this,” he said, motioning with both arms to the nearly complete restaurant. “It’s gorgeous. Just beautiful.”