Mad Greens menu has been reworked by The Culinary Edge with bolder flavors. | Photo courtesy of Mad Greens.
It hasn’t been easy for salad concepts since the Pandemic.
So argues John Montgomery, who was recently named CEO of the Golden, Colorado-based Salad Collective, parent of the Mad Greens, Snappy Salads and Tokyo Joe’s brands.
It’s a homecoming for Montgomery, who previously spent 14 years working with Mad Greens and Snappy Salads through their acquisition by the Coors family (of brewing company fame). Darden Coors took the helm, and went on to acquire the Asian fast-casual chain Tokyo Joe’s. Montgomery made a move to burrito brand Illegal Pete’s as president and chief financial officer in 2022.
But then Coors asked him to come back.
It was something he never thought he’d be able to do, said Montgomery.
“Not because of my skill set, but the family had an ethos that if they’re going to own companies, they want family members to run them. And so I never thought I would ever be a CEO there,” he said. “And for her to ask me that, and then come back and be with my friends, be with people that I helped develop, to work for the family and the organization, they’re fantastic.”
It was also a critical point for Mad Greens, which had been struggling with what Montgomery calls a “post-Covid hangover” that has afflicted many fast-casual brands, particularly salad concepts, a segment that saw sales declines of about 5% last year, Montgomery said, attributing Black Box Intelligence.
It’s about value and competition for a more discerning guest, argues Montgomery. Brands like Sweetgreen were beat up last year, while Cava fared better, though both are still around $14 to $15 for a bowl.
Cava is perceived as a better value, said Montgomery, and the flavors are bolder and fresh. And that’s what Mad Greens needed, he said.
“We’re trying to capture a new generation of guests that don’t think of Mad Greens as a healthy rabbit food place,” he said.
Coors had set the groundwork for what is now a reset for Mad Greens. Before Montgomery returned, the Coors family invested in a reworking of the menu, led by consulting group The Culinary Edge. About 80% of the menu was upgraded, with about 20 new dishes including salads, warm bowls, wraps and sides, with a theme the company calls “value through flavor.”
There’s a new Cowboy Cookout Steak Salad, for example, with grilled steak tenderloin, avocado, corn, black beans, crispy onion, a smoky chipotle ranch and a barbecue drizzle.
It has only been a few weeks, but the new menu is already getting traction, Montgomery said.
“I’ve been given the keys to the Ferrari,” said Montgomery, who returned after the menu work had been done. “The food is so much better than it was, and it’s way more craveable.”
Now the brand is looking to grow again.
The 24-unit chain is planning to open its first new brick-and-mortar location in a decade next year in Denver. Almost all units are company-owned, except for a licensed location in Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport scheduled to open in October.
So far this year, the group’s same-store sales are up almost to double digits, he said. Mad Greens’ average unit volume is about $1.2 million, which is well below that of competitors like Sweetgreen ($2.7 million) and Cava ($2.9 million) last year, according to data from Restaurant Business sister brand Technomic.
But as the Collective looks to a brighter future for Mad Greens, now the company is turning its attention to Snappy Salads, a nine-unit chain, all in Texas.
Snappy Salads’ menu is very similar to Mad Greens. In fact, some of the upgrades at Mad Greens have also been applied to Snappy Salads, like the Cowboy Cookout Steak Salad, for example.
When the Coors family acquired Snappy Salads in 2019, the plan was to covert the restaurants to Mad Greens. But, of course, that was right before the pandemic hit.
“After that, all bets were off and we had to change strategy and hang onto the lifeboat,” said Montgomery.
Now the company is returning to that idea of converting the Snappy Salads brand, but it’s a decision that hasn’t been made yet. Should they convert those Texas restaurants to Mad Greens now—especially since Mad Greens will soon enter Texas at the airport? Or should the Collective keep and rework the Snappy brand?
That’s still being pondered, Montgomery said.
“The plan is we’re going to let this cook,” he said. “We’re going to see the new menu. And I think you need six months to really start to trust the data and what guests are telling you. We’re going to need to probably iterate, because we’re not going to nail it right out of the gate.”
And then there’s the 30-year-old Tokyo Joe’s brand, the collective’s largest with 26 units. Known for a menu of Asian-style bowls, Tokyo Joe’s serves a different audience, said Montgomery.
“It has a health halo because it’s a healthy, Japanese-inspired concept,” he said. “It’s really hitting right now, and we’re just going to let that continue to work its way through the year and then evaluate.”
It was the two salad concepts that needed a shot in the arm to reignite growth.
The company had attempted franchising Mad Greens in 2023, but never got traction, Montgomery said. The Collective filed franchise disclosure documents this year to keep that viable, but Montgomery said he doesn’t think the brand is ready for that yet—though he has high hopes for nontraditional opportunities.
Fundamentally, Mad Greens and Snappy Salads are entering a new era.
In Colorado, Mad Greens was the OG concepts in the health fast-casual space, said Montgomery.Call it a “slop bowl” concept if you like, but consumers still love their bowls (something that Montgomery noted was also true at Illegal Pete’s).
“We should own it in Colorado,” said Montgomery, of Mad Greens. “We should own slop bowls, if that’s what people want to call it. We should not allow a Sweetgreen or whoever else that wants to come in and start to get market share, especially if Sweetgreen is starting to falter. We have an opportunity to grab market share in Colorado and I’d like to pursue that path.”
