Sweetgreen in 2024 scaled back menu innovation from its typical five seasonal changes to two—Caramelized Garlic Steak and air-fried Brussels Sprouts. That’s about to shift in a material way this year as the previous cadence returns alongside other introductions, from chef collaborations to the much-talked-about “Ripple Fries” in the spring, a sweetgreen take on the category classic that uses five ingredients, is cut daily, fried in avocado oil, and plated next to a side of housemade pickled ketchup or garlic aioli.
The reason sweetgreen leaned back last year, though, CEO Jonathan Neman said, was to “stabilize a lot of the rest of the operation.” This included labor deployment, improving the tenure of the “head coach” position, curating an AI powered workforce management system, and other levers. One in particular that ramped up was sweetgreen’s automated “Infinite Kitchen,” a model that debuted in 2023. The brand closed last year with 12 of them, six of which arrived in Q4 (10 hit the market over 2024 including three retrofits). The goal for 2025 will be to dedicate half of development (40 projected locations) to include the robotic kitchen system. So it would go from 12 to 33. One to three retrofits are on deck, too, and two New York City stores will relocate and add the system as they go. Altogether, at least 25 new Infinite Kitchens will be deployed in 2025.
The premise of the Infinite Kitchen has been well-documented since its launch: leverage automation to improve speed and consistency and reduce labor intensity. These locations to date are delivering at least 7 percentage points in labor savings and one point in improved COGS compared to stores of similar age and volume, Neman said. Additionally, Infinite Kitchens are driving loftier native digital sales due to their high throughput and repeatable performance, leading to better guest experience.
While sweetgreen generally doesn’t disclose store-by-store performance, it did pull the curtain back on a Hingham, Massachusetts, Infinite Kitchen that boasted a 30 percent margin in its first full month compared to 26 percent for the Naperville original when it opened in 2023. The brand also conducted a guest survey in January that showed 90 percent of customers expressed a positive overall experience, including food and ingredient quality, at Infinite Kitchen restaurants.
Of its three retrofits in 2024, two were in Q4 at top-flight stores in Chicago’s Willis Tower and Wall Street in New York City. Neman said the Windy City spot is on pace “to set all sorts of records.” The Penn Plaza retrofit, completed in mid-July, is comping around 15 percent on its digital lines (the critical mark for Infinite Kitchen).
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As sweetgreen has spoken to previously, Infinite Kitchen can fulfill about 500 orders per hour. The brand has done work since on the finishing station, where every bowl has to be completed by a team member. It’s where bottlenecks happen, but Neman said sweetgreen reworked the setup with ergonomics in mind to get more accurate and faster. Given this potential, it’s likely the brand will choose retrofits based on higher-volume spots where there’s room to harness orders. The rate of those retrofits should pick up in 2026 and 2027.
“You’ll see the ability for us to capture and get through a peak line quickly is pretty amazing,” Neman said of observing Willis Tower and Penn Plaza. “I mean, in those IK stores, even when you have tons and tons of demand, you’re getting orders in sub-5 minutes. And so, really excited about the potential that we’ll offer as we continue to scale.”
Overall, throughput is being looked at through two avenues for sweetgreen—Infinite Kitchens and adjusting the flow of “classic” stores. Regarding the latter, it’s been an ongoing effort to get more labor at peak and ensuring prep is completed earlier so there’s all hands on deck when traffic surges. It’s also been testing planted positions, like you often see in fast casual, and continues to selectively upstream parts of cold prep. “These changes may seem small, but they free up our team to focus on service and speed, helping us drive throughput,” Neman said.
Something else in pilot is what sweetgreen calls “Project Turbo.” The idea there is for stores to be able to leverage the digital and front lines at different points in the day, Neman said. So take the morning period where you have high digital make line demand, but not on the front. Restaurants can leverage the front to assist digital. Then, moving to lunch, reverse the idea so the digital line busts the frontline orders via handheld. Sliding later into the day, the front line again can aid and sweetgreen locate labor efficiencies as digital orders drop off. “So effectively being able to take advantage of the double engines in all of our restaurants and efficiently route the orders to where it makes sense,” Neman said.
But getting back to wider initiatives, sweetgreen said it sees plenty of runway in optimizing operations beyond its 2024 moves, broadening the brand’s customer base, growing frequency, and expanding.
The chain exited 25 with 246 restaurants and average-unit volumes of $2.9 million, in line with last year. Same-store sales in Q4 rose 4 percent on top of last year’s 6 percent (when protein plates launched), good for a two-year stack of 10 percent as total revenue upped 5 percent to $160.9 million. The comp comprised of flat traffic and mix and 4 percent price.
Digital mixed 56 percent of sales and owned digital 29 percent, compared to 58 and 34 percent, respectively, in Q4 2023. Loss from operations was $31.4 million and loss from operations margin 20 percent versus $29.3 million and 19 percent in the prior-year period. Restaurant-level profit was $28 million and store-level profit margin 17 percent (compared to $24.8 million and 16 percent last year). Net loss was $29 million and adjusted EBITDA negative $600,000. Adjusted EBITDA margin was flat.
For the full year, total revenue climbed 16 percent to $676.9 million as same-store sales grew 6 percent (4 percent price, 2 percent traffic and mix) and loss from operations was $95.7 million and net loss $90.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA came in positive at $18.7 million versus negative $2.8 million in fiscal 2023.
This past year marked the first full calendar of positive adjusted EBITDA in sweetgreen’s history. “A key milestone that confirms our strategy is working,” Neman said.
Since its IPO in 2021, sweetgreen has posted four consecutive years of double-digit revenue growth.
Sweetgreen began 2025 with some major headwinds in California. Weather in January and February affected guest traffic across roughly 60 percent of sweetgreeen’s fleet. The L.A. wildfires, while not causing physical damage to stores, disrupted operations. Nearly 15 percent of the brand’s revenue comes from the L.A. market. For perspective, L.A. delivered high single-digit comps in 2024. Thanks to temporary closures and shifts in traffic patterns, quarter-to-date, sweetgreen comps in the market flipped to negative double-digits.
The threefold impact of the fires, a holiday week shift in the opening part of the year, and no menu news in January and February (the calendar is set to kick off in March) produced a 700-basis-point blow to sweetgreen’s sales, CFO Mitch Reback said. The company comped negative 6 percent through February. It’s improved since, he added, and should strengthen as sweetgreen moves further from the events. In turn, comps are expected to decline between 3–5 percent in Q1.
Loyalty and other happenings
Sweetgreen has witnessed upswings in the past from expanding menu relevancy and building brand awareness through growth. The Midwest, Texas, and Southeast reported double-digit same-store sales growth last year. The 2024 class of openings, Neman said, is on track to reach $2.8 million in Year 1 sales, aligned with sweetgreen’s Year 2 targets. The brand expanded into three new markets in 2024, Seattle; the Short North area of Columbus, Ohio; and uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.
As mentioned, unit growth will accelerate in 2025 by at least 15 percent and include three fresh areas as well: Sacramento, Phoenix, and Cincinnati.
A key learning through it all, Neman said, is the power of “newness.” Sweetgreen supported its two menu launches last year with six weeks of heightened marketing support. During that stretch, it saw highly incremental and accelerated same-store sales, Neman said.
So 2025 will enjoy a boost on this front compared to the operational-building pillars of 2024. This includes a jumpstarted approach to menu innovation and the introduction of a revamped loyalty program supported by investments in personalized CRM and paid media.
Ripple Fries shifted from a late-winter launch to early spring (March) to help maximize messaging. Early trials returned the highest attach rate figures for a side in brand history, Neman said, without getting into specifics. “And totally incremental,” he said. “The feedback has been pretty amazing from consumers. It’s craveable. It’s a permissible indulgence, where you can have your salad and get the fries on the side.”
The seasonal launches will also enable sweetgreen to flex value as it introduces items in the lower mid-tier price ranges. “The other thing that was important about the seasonals was it was a huge part of the story and brand positioning,” Neman said. “The fact that you’re supposed to kind of eat food with the season, that’s a huge part of what the sweetgreen brand stands for, again, in terms of the resonance and a reason to talk to consumers and a positioning of who we are and what makes us special. We believe that’s something that our consumers will really value and will resonate.”
SG Rewards, which arrived in select markets on February 17, with plans to go national in April, allows members to earn 10 points for every eligible dollar spent. Points can be redeemed for free menu items, along with access to exclusive deals and special offers.
Previously, the company offered a “Sweetpass” two-tiered platform that included a free component as well as a $10 monthly membership option with additional perks.
Early last year, sweetgreen said Sweetpass, launched in 2023, hadn’t meaningfully moved the needle on transactions. Although there were some incremental gains from the subscription tier, the membership base wasn’t large enough to drive growth, Neman said. That led sweetgreen to a simpler architecture, better in-app experience, and more one-to-one personalization.
Sweetgreen did, however, use insights from Sweetpass and Sweetpass + users to shape SG Rewards. Essentially, members have more control over how they earn and redeem perks, with a focus on flexibility. Users have the opportunity to earn on every purchase. As it expands, the company said, sweetgreen will track sign-ups, repeat visits, and reward redemptions to measure engagement.
Ripple Fries will generate buzz ahead of launch, as will a teased collaboration with a Michelin-starred chef and the reintroduction of three to four seasonals across summer and fall.
“As we look forward, we have shifted capital internally towards more menu innovation and strategic media investment,” Neman said. “We believe this combined with personalized CRM and our revamped loyalty program will accelerate transactions.”
Back on the ops front
Around the idea of “head coach” tenure, Neman said it was vital for sweetgreen to design a clear and structured career path that creates opportunities for professional development and advancement. Promoting talent is the unlock to scaling culture, he said.
Employees can grow into a “head coach” in as little as three years. In 2024, more than half of sweetgreeen’s open restaurant leadership roles were filled internally.
The AI-powered workforce management system centers of forecasting, scheduling, and efficiency. Employees get an optional, user-friendly mobile platform to manage their schedules and align availability with restaurant needs. By leveraging AI, Neman said, sweetgreen is streamlining labor planning and improving shift coverage, which frees up “head coaches” to focus more on team development and customer-facing touchpoints. It’s already been deployed across nearly half of sweetgreen’s fleet.
On average, employees are receiving 10 percent more hours per week while reducing overtime expense. Also, absentee rates dropped by a third, Neman said. Sweetgreen is on track to complete the rollout across all restaurants by end of Q2.
