People eat lunch outside Sweetgreen in Manhattan.
Jeenah Moon | Washington Post | Getty Images
Sweet green the company’s shares rose nearly 34% on Friday after the company beat Wall Street expectations for fiscal first-quarter revenue and raised its full-year forecast. The salad chain also announced earlier this week the expansion of its menu to include meat.
The salad chain reported revenue of $158 million, topping the LSEG consensus of $152 million. Revenue increased 26% from $125.1 million in the same period last year.
The company reported a net loss of $26.1 million, or 23 cents per share. In the same quarter last year, the company’s net loss was $33.7 million, or a loss of 30 cents per share.
Sweetgreen also increased revenues and revised its EBITDA forecast for the full year. The company’s shares are up 179% so far in 2024.
Here’s how the company fared against LSEG analysts’ estimates:
- Loss per share: 23 cents
- Income: $158 million against the expected $152 million
Jonathan Neman, CEO and co-founder of Sweetgreen, said during an earnings call with analysts that the company opened six modern restaurants in the first quarter. Neman highlighted the success of Seattle’s South Lake Union location, which “had one of the best opening weeks in the company’s recent history.”
“Openings like this show that our brand has a much broader reach than our current physical footprint and that there remains enormous headroom for our category-defining concept,” he told analysts during a post-close earnings call on Thursday.
Sweet green started implementing robots for tasks such as serving vegetables and mixing salads in their restaurants last year. Dubbed “Infinite Kitchen,” the robotic technology was first implemented in May 2023 with the opening of the company’s pilot store in Naperville, Illinois.
Neman added that the company is “on track” to open about seven modern Infinite Kitchen automated restaurants in 2024 and plans to open more next year. According to StreetAccount, analysts were “impressed” with the first results from the Infinite Kitchen location.
The company announced this on Tuesday adding steak to your menu in expanding its protein offerings to include a Caramelized Garlic Steak Protein Plate, a Heated Chopped Steak Bowl, and a Steak Caesar Salad with Kale.
“During the test phase in Boston, we saw that caramelized garlic steak quickly became a dinner favorite, with steak accounting for nearly 1 in 5 dinner orders,” Nicolas Jammet, Sweetgreen’s chief concept officer and co-founder, said in a press release. “We’re excited to give customers more of what they want at any time of the day.”
