Richmond Green began his career at Chick-fil-A, spending six years with the category giant, including traveling the country as a grand opening supervisor. He then joined Atlanta-based fast casual gusto! in 2016. CEO Nate Hybl brought in Green, today its vice president of operations, to help the brand scale. It had one restaurant at the time and roughly $1 million in annual sales. Today, those figures have ballooned to 14 and $20 million, respectively.
But the growth for gusto! remains in front of the brand. Green, also one of QSR’s Young Leaders to Watch in 2024, leads the chain’s strategic leadership team, a group comprised of senior department heads, as well as overseeing the day-to-day functions of the business.
And as gusto! approaches its 10th anniversary later this year, it’s considering expansion into new markets around the Southeast. It’s also looking into nontraditional outlets, from airports to ghost and cloud kitchens.
MORE: Read about the story of gusto! and how the brand navigated COVID with an eye on the future
Yet beyond growth, gusto! remains a culture-driven operation that’s rooted in communication and positivity. The brand developed a People Leader role responsible for helping individual employees grow inside and outside dining rooms. Gusto!’s turnover rate has been significantly lower than the average figure in quick service over recent years—a result of focusing on guiding team members through development, training, culture, and experiences. The brand believes a manager can influence somebody’s mental health more than nearly anybody else in their life.
“Richmond is truly one of the best people in QSR and epitomizes innovation in every aspect of the business to evaluating POS, loyalty, and digital menu technology to making sure that training and development of all store-level team members is consistent no matter the model of that particular business,” his nomination read.
Come join Green and the gusto! team at this year’s QSR Evolution Conference. And if you’d like to be nominated as a QSR Evolution Innovator, you can do so here.
