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Salad and Go Aims for Low Price in Healthy Food · Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence

0:16
Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping It Up. I'm your host, Mike Hallon,
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Speaker 1: the senior restaurant and food service analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
0:22
Speaker 1: Today we're joined by Charlie Morrison, CEO of Salad and Go.
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Speaker 1: Thanks for doing this, Charlie, My pleasure great to be here.
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Speaker 1: All right, So, I'm sure many in the audience are
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Speaker 1: unaware that you moonlight as a farmer. So when are
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Speaker 1: we going to see the bottom in corn and soybean prices?
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Speaker 2: Man? Oh, well, actually right now they're lower than they
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Speaker 2: were in the fourth quarter, So that's good, I actually
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Speaker 2: believe it or not. I have I don't remember how
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Speaker 2: many bushels of beans in the grain elevator waiting to sell,
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Speaker 2: and my wife is like, hey, when are you going
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Speaker 2: to sell those peans? You got to get that done
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Speaker 2: for real. Yeah, I am. I got a place in
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Speaker 2: Kansas that's my home and we farm, and I also
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Speaker 2: have some cattle out there, and it's a it's a
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Speaker 2: fun thing to do to get away to decompress, but
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Speaker 2: it also gets you much closer to the root of
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Speaker 2: what it is we do in restaurants, which is, you know,
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Speaker 2: making fresh food available for people all over the place.
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Speaker 2: So Yeah, it's fun.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very cool. You're also in the process of
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Speaker 1: establishing your farm as regenerative, So what are the some
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Speaker 1: of the requirements that you have to adhere to do that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a process, And to be very candid with you,
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Speaker 2: I'm still learning. When I got to salad and goo,
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Speaker 2: I got a lot more, a lot closer, I guess
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Speaker 2: to you know where the food is ultimately coming from,
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Speaker 2: and I think, you know, consumers want that as well,
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Speaker 2: and so smarter for me to make sure I'm getting
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Speaker 2: closer to it. And then when I have my own farm,
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Speaker 2: I'm starting to learn about what's happening with tilling and
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Speaker 2: spraying and everything that goes on in in farming today.
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Speaker 2: And it's challenging. It's having a negative effect on our environment.
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Speaker 2: It's impacting soil erosion and desertification of soils, and we
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Speaker 2: need to figure out a way to fix that because
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Speaker 2: fixing that ultimately has a connection to our carbon footprint
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Speaker 2: and being able to take carbon out of the atmosphere
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Speaker 2: and put it back into the ground where it belongs.
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Speaker 2: So the concept of regenerative farming in a simplistic way,
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Speaker 2: my simplistic way, I'm no scientist. Is the idea of
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Speaker 2: letting the land be the land and keeping keeping your
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Speaker 2: you know, your your grasses and your crops. You know,
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Speaker 2: in a point where you're always having something growing right,
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Speaker 2: there's always something in the base. There's mulching, no tilling,
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Speaker 2: you know, establishing a groundcover that can retur the moisture
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Speaker 2: and the soil and also retain the carbon from the atmosphere.
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Speaker 2: I inherited this farm and it was a till kill
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Speaker 2: till kill, and so it takes a few years to
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Speaker 2: actually make this happen where you can start to plant
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Speaker 2: Kraffer crops, put them in play, have them available year round.
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Speaker 2: And what I've learned really quickly is I have fewer weeds,
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Speaker 2: I have to use less chemical, less fertilizer. I'm getting
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Speaker 2: more abundant yields. We had a drought year last year,
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Speaker 2: and we had some of the best yields in the
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Speaker 2: area compared to anybody on our products. And so as
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Speaker 2: I continue to do this, probably over the next two years,
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Speaker 2: we'll get better about it and ultimately do our part
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Speaker 2: in my seven hundred acres or so to give back
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Speaker 2: to the environment as best we can and hopefully use
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Speaker 2: that as a way to inspire others to adopt an
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Speaker 2: approach to regenerative farming that's necessary in our society.
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Speaker 1: I love it. I feel like it doesn't get enough
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Speaker 1: attention compared to stuff like plant based meat. It's just
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Speaker 1: not as sexy, right, But you know, I see that
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Speaker 1: companies are starting to pay more attention to it, which
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Speaker 1: I think is a very good thing.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I think I think companies should adopt the
4:12
Speaker 2: practices into their supply chain strategies as quickly as they can.
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Speaker 2: The sooner they do it, the better. It's hard to
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Speaker 2: force it, but I think you can teach and educate,
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Speaker 2: and the more we learn about what really is happening
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Speaker 2: with their carbon footprint, the better good stuff.
4:26
Speaker 1: All right, So you had a phenomenal run at Wingstop,
4:30
Speaker 1: and to be completely honest with you, I was surprised
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Speaker 1: when I heard you were taking the Salid and Go job.
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Speaker 1: So why don't you share what attracted you to the brand?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, I mean, what an amazing opportunity to
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Speaker 2: have led Wingstop for ten years and through its IPO
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Speaker 2: and growth and quite frankly just watching it literally down
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Speaker 2: the street. The team's right down the street from me.
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Speaker 2: Now and seeing the great work that they're doing to
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Speaker 2: carry on the performance and continue to grow that brand
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Speaker 2: is And you know, in twenty twenty, I got a
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Speaker 2: phone call from a recruiter friend of mine and they said, Hey,
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Speaker 2: there's this small little company and based in Phoenix, Arizona
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Speaker 2: that is doing something really unique and a bit disruptive
5:15
Speaker 2: in our space, and they're looking for board members and
5:18
Speaker 2: they want to talk to you. And I really think
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Speaker 2: you ought to take a look at it. But it's
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Speaker 2: only twenty stores, and I was like, I don't know,
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Speaker 2: you know, startups, you know, those are challenging and what
5:27
Speaker 2: are we doing? But I got to know this brand
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Speaker 2: Salad and Go, and I did some research. It was
5:33
Speaker 2: during the pandemic, so it was a little hard to
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Speaker 2: see the stores, and you know, they were only twenty
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Speaker 2: in Phoenix, and you know, we needed to grow. But
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Speaker 2: everything I listened to and learned about and saw, and
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Speaker 2: then eating the food and understanding its origin and how
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Speaker 2: it was built and the value orientation of this brand
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Speaker 2: caused me to believe that like, aside from brands like
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Speaker 2: Wingstop and a few others, there's only a few that
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Speaker 2: I can clearly say are in a category by itself,
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Speaker 2: this one was there, and so to be a board member,
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Speaker 2: I thought, Yes, this is something that excites me, that
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Speaker 2: energizes me, and I'd love to be a part of
6:06
Speaker 2: watching the growth story in Deferral fast forward about you know,
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Speaker 2: I don't know twelve or fourteen months in the process,
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Speaker 2: and as a board we said, we clearly need to
6:16
Speaker 2: find a CEO that can help carry this thing for
6:19
Speaker 2: the long haul. And as we were evaluating prospects, I
6:25
Speaker 2: continued to say no to everybody, and there's just nobody
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Speaker 2: I really liked it. I felt like was best fit
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Speaker 2: for this brand. And I was also kind of reflective
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Speaker 2: having a reflective period at Wingstop. It had been ten years,
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Speaker 2: got a great team. I might be in their way.
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Speaker 2: It may or may not be one last thing I
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Speaker 2: do and I just retire or whatever, go farm, as
6:43
Speaker 2: we talked about. But my wife and I sat and
6:46
Speaker 2: talked and I said, you know, I love this brand.
6:49
Speaker 2: She said, I know you do, and you're not ready.
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Speaker 2: She was clear about that, like, go do something and
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Speaker 2: have fun. And this is what I love to do
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Speaker 2: is build brands and build them from the early stage,
6:57
Speaker 2: which we did at Wingstop, and continue to grow that,
7:00
Speaker 2: and so I threw my hat in the ring and
7:02
Speaker 2: I said, hey, what if I do this and would
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Speaker 2: you guys be be excited to a small private equity
7:08
Speaker 2: group that owns us And they said, really, like, that's
7:11
Speaker 2: that's interesting. Let us get back to you. And they
7:13
Speaker 2: came back and said yes, And so you know, we
7:15
Speaker 2: work something out and lo and behold. I quit my
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Speaker 2: job one day, unexpected to the whole world, but I
7:22
Speaker 2: did it not to surprise anyone, but I knew I
7:25
Speaker 2: clearly had a great team, and Michael Skipp was an
7:27
Speaker 2: exceptional CEO and he's doing a really good job over
7:30
Speaker 2: at wing Stuff, and the team was well suited to
7:32
Speaker 2: carry this on. And quite frankly, it fueled a passion
7:36
Speaker 2: for me to go take something on. And what I
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Speaker 2: love about this brand the mission orientation is very clear.
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Speaker 2: It's to make fresh, nutritious food affordable inconvenient for all,
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Speaker 2: and that for all element about making food that's healthy
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Speaker 2: and good for you to everyone at a value price point.
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Speaker 2: You know, has a lot of the same attributes of
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Speaker 2: what Amazon was created around at Costco and others, and
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Speaker 2: so in our space that's hard to find to me.
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Speaker 2: It was an opportunity to really take on something great,
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Speaker 2: so I did.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure the private act not to give you
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Speaker 1: a big head or anything, but I'm sure the private
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Speaker 1: equity group didn't have to think too long about that decision.
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Speaker 1: Very cool. How is Salad and Go able to sell
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Speaker 1: salads at such an attractive price point?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mentioned the model. In the nature of this
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Speaker 2: model is very disruptive. It's disruptive in the world of restaurants.
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Speaker 2: It shows up just like anybody else. So it's a
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Speaker 2: double drive through only seven hundred and fifty square foot
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Speaker 2: box that we make eight salads that are our feature
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Speaker 2: menu items, and then you can build any salad you want.
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Speaker 2: You can take any salad to turn it into a wrap.
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Speaker 2: And then we compliment even the salad offering with the
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Speaker 2: breakfast offering, so that you can show up in the
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Speaker 2: morning and get your breakfast burrito and get your salad,
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Speaker 2: and you've got lunch and breakfast covered in the same occasion.
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Speaker 2: And we sell our salads for under seven dollars. And
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Speaker 2: that's protein. It's in a forty eight ounce bowl, which
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Speaker 2: yields about a pound of product in total, which competes
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Speaker 2: with every other salad that you know out there and
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Speaker 2: people ask me like, how do you do this for
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Speaker 2: roughly half the price, if not more than what's available
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Speaker 2: in other salad concepts. And the answer is, we've completely
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Speaker 2: flipped the model and recognized that there is a bit
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Speaker 2: of an I don't know if it's broken, but it
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Speaker 2: needs to be revised the model of food service today
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Speaker 2: because it's very labor intensive in the back of the
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Speaker 2: house to be able to cut, wash and prepare produce
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Speaker 2: for a salad. You have all the supply chain elements
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Speaker 2: that exist from the growers, the farmers themselves, through the
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Speaker 2: intermediaries to the distributors to the store. And this brand
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Speaker 2: was designed from the get go to disrupt all of that.
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Speaker 2: And you've been around the restaurant industry a long time,
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Speaker 2: I have too. Usually when brands get really scaled and
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Speaker 2: really big, that's when they start to vertically integrate. This
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Speaker 2: one's being done from the very get go, which someone's say, well,
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Speaker 2: that's wildly capital intensive. Why would you do that, And
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Speaker 2: the answer is, because we want to start with that
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Speaker 2: low price offering from the get go and scale this
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Speaker 2: brand so that we can maintain that over the long term.
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Speaker 2: Which I mentioned before is more of the Amazon Costco
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Speaker 2: style of approach than it is a traditional restaurant approach.
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Speaker 2: Quite frankly, if I bought all of our ingredients off
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Speaker 2: the street the way they're designed today, I wouldn't be
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Speaker 2: able to sell a salid for that price. And the
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Speaker 2: key unlock here is we're taking all labor out of
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Speaker 2: the back of the house and we're centralizing it in
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Speaker 2: a large central kitchen. These central kitchens ultimately will be
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Speaker 2: about one hundred thousand square feet in size. They'll be
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Speaker 2: able to support four to five hundred stores worth of product,
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Speaker 2: and those four to five hundred stores will be located
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Speaker 2: within about a day or two proximity of that kitchen.
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Speaker 2: So logistics is a big piece of the unlocked. But
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Speaker 2: what we do is we bring the product from the
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Speaker 2: grower who we know, straight to the kitchen. We cut,
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Speaker 2: wash bag and prepare that product and send it to
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Speaker 2: our stores. So in many cases, the romain that you're
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Speaker 2: eating in your salad, that romaine led us was in
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Speaker 2: the field five days ago and is on your fork today.
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Speaker 2: It doesn't happen exactly that way every time, but usually
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Speaker 2: plus or minus a few days, which is much different
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Speaker 2: than what you experienced in the grocery store or even
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Speaker 2: in restaurants, where those products are given techniques to extend
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Speaker 2: their shelf life so that it can travel through that
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Speaker 2: big supply chain. Otherwise you got to do all this
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Speaker 2: stuff in house. If you do it in house very
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Speaker 2: expensive labor, you're going to charge a much higher price.
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Speaker 2: So we've been able to do this. What's great about
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Speaker 2: the brand too, is we can do it by still
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Speaker 2: paying our people more than fifteen dollars an hour, and
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Speaker 2: we can pay our people in our central kitchens as
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Speaker 2: much as twenty dollars an hour. So we're accommodating today's
11:46
Speaker 2: wage environment with a differentiated model of production. Very cool.
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Speaker 1: I have a couple questions about that answer. How many
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Speaker 1: customers are coming through and ordering breakfast and lunch. I
11:58
Speaker 1: think that's unique, new one for me. I haven't heard
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Speaker 1: that before.
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Speaker 2: I think it's the only option in our industry where
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Speaker 2: you can accomplish two day parts in one and twenty
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Speaker 2: percent of our business is done before lunch. Okay, so
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Speaker 2: then of that about half of it is split between
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Speaker 2: true breakfast items, and then people get grabbing their salad
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Speaker 2: for lunch as well. Some only get their salad and
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Speaker 2: they opt out of breakfast. Some only get breakfast and
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Speaker 2: opt out a salad. But the combination of all of
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Speaker 2: it already creates a really balanced day part for us
12:29
Speaker 2: that I think we can grow. The key is awareness.
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Speaker 2: We just got to tell people more and more that
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Speaker 2: this option exists. But I'm unaware of any other quick
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Speaker 2: service chain, for sure, or any other chain where you
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Speaker 2: can get both in one day part.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, smart, I feel like there's some really good upside there,
12:44
Speaker 1: just through education, right of course about it. Yeah, and
12:48
Speaker 1: you mentioned you talked a little bit about the distribution centers.
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Speaker 1: How many do you have right now and how many
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Speaker 1: restaurants did they support?
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Speaker 2: We have two. Our original one was built in Phoenix,
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Speaker 2: where the brand originated, and that one is scaled in
13:01
Speaker 2: size so that it can handle all of Phoenix. Today,
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Speaker 2: our stores in Las Vegas, and soon we'll be opening
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Speaker 2: in southern California, so we anticipate that everything out of
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Speaker 2: Phoenix will handle that entire region. We also have another
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Speaker 2: one in Dallas, and that facility is where the newest
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Speaker 2: one is getting ready to open. We had a kind
13:20
Speaker 2: of a one point zero version. We're opening our full
13:23
Speaker 2: long term facility here very shortly, and that one will
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Speaker 2: service all of Texas, which we have stores now in Dallas, Houston,
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Speaker 2: San Antonio, Waco, Austin. We're up into Oklahoma as far
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Speaker 2: north as Tulsa. We'll probably go as far as Kansas City,
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Speaker 2: and then we'll start to branch out towards the east
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Speaker 2: and get into markets like Atlanta, Nashville and others as
13:44
Speaker 2: we expand. So that facility has a lot of stretch.
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Speaker 1: Okay, cool. And at the store level, what's the sales
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Speaker 1: mix per channel.
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Speaker 2: Between drive through and online?
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Speaker 1: There's only two okay, yeah, that's right. Nobody in the restaurant.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no dyning. So it's only seven or fifty
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Speaker 2: square feet, so it's essentially a kitchen. So all of
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Speaker 2: our customers come through the drive through in one way
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Speaker 2: or the other. They either order ahead and go through
14:08
Speaker 2: a dedicated mobile pickup lane, or they go through the
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Speaker 2: drive through. It's still you know, about eighty percent drive through,
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Speaker 2: twenty percent online, which we think we can improve on
14:17
Speaker 2: that just as much.
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Speaker 1: Great you mentioned were some of the places where the
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Speaker 1: chain is geographically strong. Right, Who is the typical Salad
14:26
Speaker 1: and go customer?
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Speaker 2: It's interesting. I'll start first with just a generalization who
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Speaker 2: the typical salad customer is, because at Salad and Go
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Speaker 2: our mission is for all. But a typical salad eater
14:39
Speaker 2: tends to be more female, a little bit higher income,
14:44
Speaker 2: a little less less ethnically diverse. So they live in
14:47
Speaker 2: the suburbs in most communities, and that's where you tend
14:51
Speaker 2: to see a lot of salad concepts popping up, or
14:53
Speaker 2: in really densely populated areas, high rises, stuff like that
14:57
Speaker 2: in the cities. What we have been able to demonstrate
15:01
Speaker 2: and prove in our initial markets and even in our
15:03
Speaker 2: new markets is the price point is really the trigger.
15:07
Speaker 2: So it's very expensive to eat salad every single day,
15:10
Speaker 2: and people just don't. So if you're more affluent, you're
15:12
Speaker 2: more likely to be a salad eater than is if
15:14
Speaker 2: you are less affluent. And what we have uncovered is
15:18
Speaker 2: that that's not really the bias. The bias is price,
15:22
Speaker 2: not who you are. And so what we found is
15:25
Speaker 2: a very mixed demographic, which is great. It's more of
15:28
Speaker 2: the complexion of America than it is you know, the
15:31
Speaker 2: core salid eater, and so it varies. It's used, you know,
15:35
Speaker 2: an even balanced between male and female, a definite balance
15:39
Speaker 2: around income levels, and a definite balance around ethnicity, which
15:42
Speaker 2: is great. That's the four all element we want for
15:45
Speaker 2: this brand, and it really is the idea of democratizing
15:48
Speaker 2: healthy food. And that's the problem in America right now
15:52
Speaker 2: is it's just too expensive for people to eat healthy.
15:56
Speaker 2: They're relegated in a lot of cases to a burger
15:59
Speaker 2: and fries and a drive through that's quick because that
16:01
Speaker 2: fits their lifestyle. There's no reason salads can't do that
16:04
Speaker 2: and achieve both. And so we're able to sell a
16:06
Speaker 2: product that is less than that Burger's and prize and
16:09
Speaker 2: give you a healthy option.
16:11
Speaker 1: All right, So how many units do you have today
16:13
Speaker 1: and are they all company owned?
16:15
Speaker 2: The entire brand is company owned, and we do that
16:18
Speaker 2: because of the central production nature with those central kitchens.
16:22
Speaker 2: We think that's the best and quite frankly, we love
16:24
Speaker 2: the unit economics as well. But they're one hundred and
16:27
Speaker 2: thirty one today. We've been opening at a rate of
16:31
Speaker 2: about one a week throughout twenty twenty three and expect
16:34
Speaker 2: that to continue in twenty four and then accelerate in
16:37
Speaker 2: the years beyond.
16:38
Speaker 1: So you and economics must be strong. Would you like
16:40
Speaker 1: to share any of that data?
16:44
Speaker 2: Well, the one thing I can share with you is
16:46
Speaker 2: our early indications and understanding of strong mature markets, say
16:52
Speaker 2: that the store volumes can meet or exceed two million
16:55
Speaker 2: dollars and so on a small footprint. Obviously, investment costs
16:59
Speaker 2: are much lower, and so we're comfortable that the brand
17:02
Speaker 2: generates a great cash on cash return once to achieved maturity.
17:06
Speaker 2: And so in a startup nature, we're trying to build
17:08
Speaker 2: awareness and grow the brand and like anybody else would,
17:11
Speaker 2: and we're doing it fast, but it does yield a
17:16
Speaker 2: great economic model over the long term.
17:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, lower build costs without you know, if you're not
17:21
Speaker 1: building a dining room, you don't need digital menu boards
17:23
Speaker 1: inside and all that other good stuff right.
17:25
Speaker 2: Precisely, Nor is there any cookine equipment. It's all refrigeration
17:30
Speaker 2: and assembly aligns essentially in the store, so it's a
17:34
Speaker 2: very minimal build out.
17:35
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a lot of people that would love
17:36
Speaker 1: to franchise your business.
17:39
Speaker 2: I get a few calls and no doubt, no doubt.
17:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, no surprise. What initiatives are in place to boost
17:48
Speaker 1: same star sales this year?
17:50
Speaker 2: A lot of them. The biggest one any startup company
17:54
Speaker 2: like ours faces is awareness you know, we build these
17:59
Speaker 2: cute little building is sit on the street corner and
18:01
Speaker 2: they're white with orange trim and they're really bright, and
18:04
Speaker 2: so people drive by and they're wondering, what is that
18:06
Speaker 2: and then they learn about it. Could it be it's
18:09
Speaker 2: too good to be true? Can I get a salad
18:10
Speaker 2: for under seven dollars? And so there's that dance we do,
18:14
Speaker 2: But the biggest one is just generating awareness of this
18:17
Speaker 2: brand and telling our story and articulating the mission and
18:21
Speaker 2: what it's all about. The faster we do that. What
18:23
Speaker 2: we know about our customers is as soon as we
18:26
Speaker 2: tell them the story and as soon as they try it,
18:28
Speaker 2: they're as likely to repeat as they would be if
18:31
Speaker 2: you were a coffee concept or something like that. And
18:34
Speaker 2: so the frequency is quite great, and so for us,
18:36
Speaker 2: it's a matter of just getting more people aware, filling
18:38
Speaker 2: the top of the funnel and bringing them in and
18:40
Speaker 2: delivering a great product along that line. This brand is
18:45
Speaker 2: really well set up for two of the real hot
18:51
Speaker 2: growth items in our industry, including catering and delivery. We
18:56
Speaker 2: actually just launched our pilot for delivery yesterday as a brand,
19:00
Speaker 2: and so we're excited about that and partnering with DoorDash.
19:03
Speaker 2: We believe the delivery can be a great opportunity for
19:06
Speaker 2: this brand. The product travels well, it works well at
19:09
Speaker 2: lunch right like everybody needs it, and so we think
19:12
Speaker 2: that's going to be a good unlock for us. The
19:15
Speaker 2: other is catering a little harder to do in a
19:17
Speaker 2: little tiny footprint like ours, and so we're looking at
19:21
Speaker 2: options to create dedicated kitchens where we can actually then
19:24
Speaker 2: run lots and lots of salads out to customers and
19:29
Speaker 2: get those in their hands for large order opportunities, big events, meetings, etc.
19:34
Speaker 2: And so those are a couple of big initiatives, and
19:37
Speaker 2: then menu ideation. The beauty of a salad or a
19:40
Speaker 2: wrap is that you have a lot of ingredients you
19:43
Speaker 2: can play with. There's a lot of ways to create
19:46
Speaker 2: cravable opportunities. And because we produce not only all the vegetables,
19:51
Speaker 2: we make all the dressings from scratch, we make all
19:53
Speaker 2: of our drinks in the syrups for those from scratch,
19:56
Speaker 2: we have a lot of opportunity to really play with
19:59
Speaker 2: the menu. It's a chef driven brand. Our chef was
20:02
Speaker 2: a Michelin Star trained chef. He worked at the Likes
20:05
Speaker 2: of Michael Mina and Charlie Trotter's and the French Laundry,
20:09
Speaker 2: and so he brings an amazing repertoire to the table
20:13
Speaker 2: so that he can take really simple foods and turn
20:15
Speaker 2: them into really, really craveable items. So we're going to
20:18
Speaker 2: continue to menu to innovate the menu and bring unique
20:22
Speaker 2: flavors along as well.
20:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very cool. If somebody tries to eat healthy,
20:27
Speaker 1: I'm always asking the server whether you know what dressings
20:31
Speaker 1: are made in house? So that's that's really great to hear.
20:34
Speaker 2: One percent of ours are made in house, no additives
20:37
Speaker 2: or preservatives as well. So they are and they're paired beautifully.
20:41
Speaker 2: One of the nuances of our business. And what Chef
20:43
Speaker 2: figured out is we can also yield more of the
20:46
Speaker 2: stock of the romain. If you know a stock of romain,
20:48
Speaker 2: it has you know, the core element and you know
20:53
Speaker 2: the center cut of the romain. But he also had
20:55
Speaker 2: these green leafy tips. Those tend to be kind of bitter,
21:00
Speaker 2: so he has paired every dressing to pair up with
21:02
Speaker 2: those those more bitter leafy tips, and that plus the
21:07
Speaker 2: heart become a product that we utilize more of. So
21:11
Speaker 2: it's also you know a better utilization of the plant,
21:14
Speaker 2: but pairing up the dressings and flavors to make them work.
21:17
Speaker 2: It's he's he's really really brilliant in his approach to
21:21
Speaker 2: how he puts those together.
21:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, very smart.
21:23
Speaker 2: All right.
21:24
Speaker 1: It's a as a smaller regional brand, i'd imagine, you know,
21:28
Speaker 1: you're doing more more social media marketing, more online digital marketing.
21:34
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about the marketing plans
21:37
Speaker 1: we do.
21:38
Speaker 2: You know, because of the regionality, we tend to keep
21:41
Speaker 2: things you know, near and where our customers are. But
21:45
Speaker 2: I also believe the mission orientation of this brand lends
21:48
Speaker 2: itself to a national story too. So not only do
21:51
Speaker 2: we want existing markets to be you know, growing at
21:56
Speaker 2: a at a rapid pace, you know, to achieve those
21:58
Speaker 2: targeted volumes, but the same time, we want to soften
22:02
Speaker 2: up the new markets because we're going to grow fast
22:03
Speaker 2: in order for us to optimize our model with our
22:06
Speaker 2: big food central kitchens that we prepare the food in.
22:10
Speaker 2: We want to hit the markets as quickly as we can,
22:12
Speaker 2: and we want to soften them up by making sure
22:13
Speaker 2: that people know that this is coming. So that lends
22:17
Speaker 2: itself to a lot of you know, work in the
22:21
Speaker 2: community to tell the story and expand our public relations
22:25
Speaker 2: and our voice in that regard, leveraging influencers things like that.
22:29
Speaker 2: At the same time, we do a lot of local activation.
22:33
Speaker 2: We just launched our first food truck that we're taking around.
22:36
Speaker 2: We had it out on the streets of Vegas on
22:38
Speaker 2: Las Vegas Boulevard last weekend around the Super Bowl handing
22:41
Speaker 2: out free salads and the ideas getting we want to
22:43
Speaker 2: get food in people's mouth, to tell them the story
22:46
Speaker 2: and let them get that first bite experience of how
22:49
Speaker 2: great this product is. So we're going to have it
22:51
Speaker 2: driving all over the place, giving away free salads and
22:53
Speaker 2: getting people excited about the brand. I think influencers are
22:58
Speaker 2: a big opportunity for us, notably people who are centered
23:02
Speaker 2: on nutrition. That's a great opportunity for us to tell
23:05
Speaker 2: our story because people are looking for really high quality,
23:10
Speaker 2: thoughtful alternatives that are also value oriented and it's just
23:13
Speaker 2: hard to find. And I think if we can tap
23:15
Speaker 2: into people who are expert nutrition that can tell our story,
23:19
Speaker 2: I'm all the better as well. So there's a lot
23:21
Speaker 2: going on, and then we do employ some of the basics,
23:24
Speaker 2: telling people about new products, putting up some digital billboards
23:28
Speaker 2: in and around the cities to make sure you know
23:29
Speaker 2: where to go to find us out and go. We're
23:33
Speaker 2: pulling out all the stops. We hired on board a
23:37
Speaker 2: fantastic leader for marketing this year, a lady named Nicole Portwood,
23:43
Speaker 2: and one of her best claims to fame, although she's
23:47
Speaker 2: done some amazing things, is that she started in the
23:49
Speaker 2: very early stages with the little vodka brand out of
23:52
Speaker 2: Austin called Tito's and turned it into the big monster
23:57
Speaker 2: brand that it is today. And so she knows a
23:59
Speaker 2: little bit about taking regional startups and turning them into
24:04
Speaker 2: powerhouse brands good stuff.
24:07
Speaker 1: Is there any new technology you're implementing in the stores
24:10
Speaker 1: this year?
24:11
Speaker 2: You know? I mentioned our newly formed partnership with DoorDash
24:15
Speaker 2: to start delivery that is built upon a platform that
24:19
Speaker 2: was really consistent with what we had at Wingstop, and
24:23
Speaker 2: so took a page out of that playbook. Actually, our
24:26
Speaker 2: head of Operations and Technology as a gentleman that I've
24:30
Speaker 2: worked with in the past, and he's trained a lot
24:32
Speaker 2: of CIOs around the country, including the one we had
24:34
Speaker 2: a Wingstop, and so we have partnered together to build
24:37
Speaker 2: a platform that we can hang unique technologies off of
24:41
Speaker 2: and integrate those into the stores so that we could
24:43
Speaker 2: leverage mobile ordering and delivery as key drivers of our
24:48
Speaker 2: business in the future. Aside from that, we've already started
24:51
Speaker 2: building a guest data platform for this brand so that
24:54
Speaker 2: we can engage in one to one marketing. We don't
24:56
Speaker 2: have a loyalty program. We don't think we need it
24:58
Speaker 2: because our price points are so great to begin with.
25:01
Speaker 2: That's the that's the hook. The key is making sure
25:03
Speaker 2: we're engaging, we guess and so you know, even with
25:06
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty stores, were already have built a large,
25:09
Speaker 2: large platform of first party data to be able to
25:12
Speaker 2: engage with our customers and grow. So I would say
25:15
Speaker 2: we're TechEd forward and we had to do some catch up,
25:18
Speaker 2: but we've got the platform the place to grow for
25:20
Speaker 2: the future.
25:22
Speaker 1: Great, all right, So five cars in the drive through
25:26
Speaker 1: line might be prohibitive for somebody like McDonald's, right, I
25:29
Speaker 1: think the customer may just say, like, that line's too long,
25:31
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna keep going to Wendy's or whatever's
25:34
Speaker 1: next down the road. It might be twenty five for
25:37
Speaker 1: Chick fil A. When does a salad and go customers
25:40
Speaker 1: say that line's too big for me to wait on.
25:43
Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure yet because I don't know if
25:45
Speaker 2: I've hit the peak. I will tell you it is
25:49
Speaker 2: definitely more of your Chick fil A example than it
25:52
Speaker 2: is anything else. We tend to see twenty plus cars
25:55
Speaker 2: stacked up in a drive through. However, we do employ
26:00
Speaker 2: some techniques like others do to line best by having
26:03
Speaker 2: team members out in the drive through helping accelerate the order.
26:07
Speaker 2: But our product is really easy to assemble. It's a
26:11
Speaker 2: quick assembly. There's no cooking. So as soon as you
26:14
Speaker 2: are giving us that order and we're hearing that in
26:16
Speaker 2: our headset, we're already starting to assemble your salad. The
26:19
Speaker 2: time from the speaker when you order your food to
26:23
Speaker 2: the window and out is usually well under four minutes,
26:27
Speaker 2: and so that's best in class and QSR. So our
26:30
Speaker 2: customers are well adapted to the fact that that line
26:34
Speaker 2: is always moving and it's not a turnoff to see
26:36
Speaker 2: twenty to twenty five cars in the drive through.
26:38
Speaker 1: That's great. How many employees do you employ during that
26:42
Speaker 1: lunch rush, I guess, And if you could just talk
26:45
Speaker 1: about breakfast maybe versus that lunch rush to kind of
26:49
Speaker 1: give us some idea.
26:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, the beauty of the salad and Go and the
26:52
Speaker 2: way we design this model is you can run it
26:54
Speaker 2: with as few as three team members on a shift
26:57
Speaker 2: at the lower volume times when you hit a peak
27:00
Speaker 2: rount lunch or breakfas usually breakfast four or five. Usually
27:03
Speaker 2: at lunch we can scale up to about eight. You
27:06
Speaker 2: really can't physically put more bodies in a seven or
27:09
Speaker 2: fifty square foot box than that, and which is great.
27:12
Speaker 2: So the beauty of this brand is, you know, the
27:14
Speaker 2: labor is not our challenge, and finding people who want
27:16
Speaker 2: to work there is not our challenge because again they're
27:19
Speaker 2: not standing in front of a fryer or a flat grill,
27:22
Speaker 2: you know, and all the heat and everything. It's like
27:23
Speaker 2: cold in there and cool and it feels good and
27:26
Speaker 2: you're assembling salads and it's really good food and you're
27:28
Speaker 2: inspired by the great work that you're doing every day
27:31
Speaker 2: to make America healthier. And so we tend to have
27:35
Speaker 2: a roster of about fifteen to twenty people that make
27:38
Speaker 2: up the shifts that end up being anywhere from three
27:41
Speaker 2: or four to as many as seven or eight people
27:42
Speaker 2: on a shift.
27:45
Speaker 1: It sounds like there's not too much downtime either, which
27:48
Speaker 1: is always nice, right, It makes the theay go buy
27:50
Speaker 1: a lot.
27:51
Speaker 2: You are Yeah, yeah, at our low price point, transactions
27:54
Speaker 2: are key and throughput is important, and so we've engineered
27:58
Speaker 2: things so that we're moving really fast. So yeah, you're
28:01
Speaker 2: not standing around very often, and people do enjoy that.
28:04
Speaker 2: They want to go to work and be busy. They
28:06
Speaker 2: don't want the time to let drag buy and so
28:08
Speaker 2: we've designed a model to be exactly that.
28:11
Speaker 1: So are they all stand alone or do you have
28:13
Speaker 1: some that are like end cap units.
28:16
Speaker 2: They are all standalone drive throughs. We don't have any
28:19
Speaker 2: in caps today. We have one location in the mall
28:21
Speaker 2: that's a unique one and we think that there is
28:24
Speaker 2: opportunity for us to show up in a you know,
28:28
Speaker 2: more traditional strip center location. That's something for down the road.
28:31
Speaker 2: But today all stand alone drive throughs.
28:34
Speaker 1: I'm sure those landlords would would like the volume, that's
28:37
Speaker 1: for sure.
28:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's something we've got to figure out.
28:40
Speaker 2: We like drive through because it's speedy, convenient. It's what
28:43
Speaker 2: consumers are asking for in today's world. They don't want
28:46
Speaker 2: to get out of the car if they don't have
28:47
Speaker 2: to then get it delivered. Even better, but walking in
28:51
Speaker 2: it's a little more of a challenge. So we're going
28:53
Speaker 2: to approach that with care and make sure that in
28:55
Speaker 2: the right market it might make sense, but not everywhere.
29:00
Speaker 1: January was a tough month for industry sales. A lot
29:02
Speaker 1: of our companies. I'm in the I'm in the middle
29:04
Speaker 1: of earning season. A lot of our companies talked about
29:06
Speaker 1: the cold weather, you know, and they've also talked about
29:11
Speaker 1: some improvement here in early February. Are you kind of
29:14
Speaker 1: seeing a similar situation?
29:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I've always believed in the adage that
29:19
Speaker 2: leaders tend to use, which is when things are going great,
29:22
Speaker 2: it's leadership, and when it's not so good, it's the weather.
29:25
Speaker 2: And I will tell you in this case, is the weather. Yeah,
29:29
Speaker 2: it's It's been a tough, tough start of the year,
29:32
Speaker 2: even the markets were in I mean, the West Coast
29:34
Speaker 2: got hit hard. Phoenix, it's been really cold. Texas it's
29:37
Speaker 2: been cold and snowy. We're not exposed to the East
29:40
Speaker 2: coast challenges, but that seems to be more normal. What
29:43
Speaker 2: I will say is we held our own beautifully through it,
29:46
Speaker 2: and it's a testament to the brand's the awareness picking
29:50
Speaker 2: up of the brand and growing, but I think we're
29:53
Speaker 2: well insulated from it as well. You know, we offer
29:56
Speaker 2: a value occasion. We won't get traded off or something else.
30:01
Speaker 2: And I think if you can implement delivery and things
30:04
Speaker 2: like that, you're going to be able to mask yourself
30:06
Speaker 2: some of the challenges. But yeah, we've seen some of it,
30:09
Speaker 2: but I think most of it's pasted it. It's beautiful
30:11
Speaker 2: weather right now and we're taking advantage.
30:13
Speaker 1: Of that good stuff. You know. Thanks again for this, Charlie.
30:19
Speaker 1: Where can the audience go to find a nearby salad
30:22
Speaker 1: and go and what social media platforms is the brand
30:25
Speaker 1: big on?
30:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're big in Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, the usuals. You'll
30:31
Speaker 2: see us on LinkedIn if quite a bit talking about
30:34
Speaker 2: the you know, success of the brand and where we're
30:36
Speaker 2: going to visit a salad and go again. We're open
30:40
Speaker 2: in all the key markets in Texas, So that's Dallas
30:43
Speaker 2: where we have forty one stores, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Waco,
30:48
Speaker 2: We're up in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Las Vegas. We've already
30:52
Speaker 2: got four stores in the ground. We're gonna add eight
30:53
Speaker 2: more this year in Phoenix. That's our core market Tucson
30:58
Speaker 2: with nearly sixty stores to markets, so plenty of options,
31:01
Speaker 2: and then coming this year, hopefully maybe late in the year,
31:05
Speaker 2: Southern California will be out there as well.
31:07
Speaker 1: All Right, good stuff. I'm gonna have to try one
31:09
Speaker 1: in April when I'm down at the Restaurant Leadership Conference.
31:13
Speaker 2: I would love to host you there.
31:14
Speaker 1: All Right, good stuff, Man, this is great. I wish
31:17
Speaker 1: you luck. This is a this is an exciting story. Man.
31:19
Speaker 1: I wish you nothing but luck. Even though you're a
31:21
Speaker 1: Chiefs fan and I'm a diehard Rader fan, i wish
31:24
Speaker 1: you a lot of luck, and I'm excited to follow
31:25
Speaker 1: the story going forward.
31:27
Speaker 2: Well, I can't wait to continue to take you on
31:30
Speaker 2: the journey and share our success as we continue to grow.
31:32
Speaker 2: We're excited about it.
31:34
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah, I'll have you back on to give
31:36
Speaker 1: us an update. Big thanks to the audience for tuning
31:39
Speaker 1: in as well. If you liked the episode, please leave
31:41
Speaker 1: us a rating. Click the bell if you'd like to subscribe.
31:43
Speaker 1: Check back in a couple of weeks for a discussion
31:45
Speaker 1: with Zach Goldstein, the CEO and founder of Thanks