The Ripple Fries are in test in Los Angeles units. | Photo: Shutterstock.
If the national news this week wasn’t mind-blowing enough, Sweetgreen said on Thursday it is testing fries.
Specifically, these are crispy Ripple Fries, which are being tested in some Los Angeles area units. They’re air-fried with avocado oil, a non-seed oil, and have about 240 calories. A growing number of consumers avoid seed oils for both health and sustainability reasons. The fries are being served with a pickle ketchup and garlic aioli sauce.
It’s a bold move, and another big step for the brand away from its perceived positioning as a salad concept.
“We want to disrupt fast food,” said CEO and co-founder Jonathan Neman, in a call with analysts. “We want to give you those things that you want, that you’re used to eating—things like fries—and do it in a Sweetgreen way, in a way that we kind of think about as a permissible indulgence.”
Sweetgreen has been working on appealing more to non-salad eaters since last year with the launch of dinner-worthy protein plates, which was followed by the successful debut of Caramelized Garlic Steak added to the menu in May. And, this fall, Maple Glazed Brussels Sprouts, which are also air-fried, joined the menu as a seasonal offering.
And the effort is working.
Same-store sales for the Sept. 29-ended quarter grew 6% at Sweetgreen. Of that, 4% was from menu price increases, and 2% was attributed to both traffic and menu mix, including the more premium steak dish.
Neman said the Ripple Fries are likely to be rolled out across the 236-unit system next year. And there’s more menu innovation coming.
Sweetgreen Ripple Fries and pickle ketchup. | Photo courtesy of Sweetgreen.
In the works is the development of a new handheld item, as well as desserts. Both are a return to the brand’s roots. When the chain first launched in 2007 in Washington, D.C., it featured salads but also wrap sandwiches and frozen soft-serve (hence the “sweet” in the name). Both were later abandoned as the concept evolved.
Neman did not give a sense of timing on the wrap and dessert reveals, but he said the menu innovation so far is driving traffic and sales during dinner—which is holding steady at about 40% of sales—and weekends, resulting in higher check averages than during weekday lunch.
Also coming next year: A new loyalty program, which Neman predicted will help the brand engage more directly with guests to further drive traffic.
For the quarter, restaurant-level margins ticked up to 20%, compared with 19% a year ago.
Revenues increased 13% to $173.4 million. And the Los Angeles-based chain continued to chip away at its net loss, which was $20.8 million for the quarter, narrowed from a loss of $25.1 million a year ago.
As Sweetgreen tests new menu items, however, the chain is also looking to reduce complexity in back-of-house operations, like tweaking broccoli prep and testing the use of de-stemmed kale, as well as pre-made sauces. The goal is to free up staffing to focus on throughput to reduce wait times and accuracy, Neman said.
The chain is rolling out a new AI-driven labor scheduling system that Neman said would reduce the administrative load on head coaches and better deploy workers at peak periods. The pilot of the system has been expanded to 70 restaurants, and Neman expects the rollout to come in the second quarter next year.
But, in terms of technology, it’s Sweetgreen’s Infinite Kitchen models that are continuing to steal the show.
Sweetgreen now has 10 Infinite Kitchens open, units featuring an automated makeline that is faster and more accurate, showing about 700 basis points higher margins than traditional units.
Sweetgreen plans to open at least 40 restaurants in 2025, and half of those will be Infinite Kitchens. That’s an acceleration from the 24 to 26 expected to open this year.
The first retrofitted Sweetgreen with an Infinite Kitchen opened in July in New York City and has already shown the fastest service times in the city, producing bowls in five minutes, Neman said. The unit also has shown a noticeable increase in native digital sales with both higher ticket and frequency.
Currently, the company is retrofitting existing restaurants in both Willis Tower in Chicago and on Wall Street in New York, which are expected to be completed before the end of the year, he said.
Sweetgreen raised its guidance based on the strong results so far this year, saying it now expects same-store sales for the year to increase between 6% and 7%, with revenues between $675 million and $680 million.
That’s up from projections in the second quarter of comparable sales between 5% and 7% and revenues between $670 million and $680 million.
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