honeygrow, the popular Philadelphia-based fast-casual known for wholesome stir-frys, salads, and honeybars, reported 2023 as its most successful year in its decade-plus existence. The brand cites 30% revenue growth year-over-year from 2022 and an impressive 22% store-level EBITDA for 2023. The company grew by 30%, opened nine new restaurants and expanded to 40 locations across its seven-state footprint. There are over a dozen planned openings in the burgeoning brand’s pipeline for 2024. Despite costs associated with this rapid growth, honeygrow reported its most profitable year since inception and its third profitable year on a net income basis.
For the past three years, honeygrow demonstrated strong, sustainable growth and successfully added 17 new locations. The company remains debt-free and has self-funded new restaurant expansion. Since 2020, new restaurants have demonstrated a less than two-year payback and have exceeded the portfolio average for store-level EBITDA.
Menu innovation contributed largely to positive sales driven by seasonal LTO launches, including the Chesapeake Crab Stir-fry, which outperformed previous LTOs in suburban and urban markets during the traditionally slower summer months. Other initiatives included tight supply chain management, a continuous focus on training and people development, and several upgrades to honeygrow’s technology stack which ultimately resulted in a 70% increase in Adjusted EBITDA over 2022.
Leadership development and training also contributed to positive customer experiences. Last year, honeygrow hired 300 team members, exceeding 1,000 employees, and further implemented its Elite General Manager (EGM) program to build, reward, and retain talent, which is key to the company’s long-term growth goals. The EGM program focuses on building strong, empowered teams that are committed to each other’s professional growth while ensuring customers’ expectations are always exceeded. People and community-focused efforts resulted in over 700 organizations receiving donations from honeygrow in 2023.
“honeygrow’s success is deeply rooted in our team’s dedication, creativity, and passion to consistently provide amazing customer experiences again and again. From menu development to our EGM program to the folks in our Restaurant Support Center who are helping the people who are helping the customer, our team has been nothing short of incredible,” says Justin Rosenberg, Founder and CEO of honeygrow. “The result of those efforts energizes and further motivates us to continue to innovate, collaborate, strategize, and set ourselves apart in 2024.
