Sweetgreen Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
February 26, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Sweetgreen delivered strong 2024 financials with >15% revenue growth to $676.8M, a 200 bp restaurant-level margin expansion to 19.6%, and its first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA at $18.7M.
  • The Infinite Kitchen pilot has demonstrated at least 7% labor savings and 1% COGS reduction across 12 locations, and Sweetgreen plans to deploy 20 new IKs and retrofit 1–3 existing restaurants in 2025.
  • New menu innovations—such as grass-fed steak and upcoming Ripple Fries—alongside chef collaborations and a revamped SG Rewards loyalty program are expected to drive traffic, broaden the customer base, and boost digital sales.
  • First-quarter 2025 results have been hampered by extreme weather and Los Angeles wildfires, driving comps down ~6% through February and leading to a Q1 revenue guidance of $163–166M with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1–3M.
  • For full-year 2025, Sweetgreen targets 40 net new restaurants (50% featuring IK), 13–15% same-store sales growth, restaurant-level margins of 19.8–20.5%, and an adjusted EBITDA increase to $32–38M.
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Earnings Conference Call
Sweetgreen Q4 2024
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Thank you for standing by. My name is Jeannie, and I will be your conference operator today.

Operator

At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Sweetgreen Inc. Fourth Quarter twenty twenty four Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to Rebecca Noonu. Please go ahead.

Rebecca Nounou
Rebecca Nounou
IR at Sweetgreen

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Speaking on today's call will be Jonathan Neiman, Co Founder and Chief Executive Officer and Mitch Reback, Chief Financial Officer. Both will be available for questions during the Q and A session following the prepared remarks. Today's call is being webcasted live and recorded for replay. The earnings release is available on the Investor Relations section of Sweetgreen's website at investor.sweetgreen.com.

Rebecca Nounou
Rebecca Nounou
IR at Sweetgreen

I'd like to remind everyone that the information under the heading Forward Looking Statements included in our earnings release also applies to our comments made during the call. These forward looking statements are based on information as of today, and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward looking statements. We also direct you to our earnings release for additional information regarding our use of non GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations of non GAAP financial measures mentioned on the call with the corresponding GAAP measures. Our earnings release can be found on our investor website. And now, I'll turn the call over to Jonathan to kick things off.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Thank you, Rebecca, and good afternoon, everyone. At Sweetgreen, we're redefining fast food through superior sourcing, culinary excellence, innovative technology and a consistent hospitable experience. In 2024, we expanded our menu, opened 25 new restaurants and ended the year with 12 Infinite Kitchens. We elevated our sourcing and culinary practices as well as took meaningful steps to improve the team member experience, leading to the lowest turnover levels in company history. Our full year financial results reflect this work and exceeded our expectations coming into 2024.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Sales grew over 15% to $676,800,000 and restaurant level margin expanded more than 200 basis points year over year to 19.6%. Adjusted EBITDA of $18,700,000 was a $21,500,000 improvement over the prior year period. Since our IPO in 2021, we have delivered four consecutive years of double digit revenue growth. Our restaurant level margin has expanded from 12% to 20% and G and A, excluding stock based compensation, has gone from 28% of sales to 16% of sales in 2024. Most importantly, 2024 marked the first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA in our company's history, a key milestone that confirms our strategy is working.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

We are committed to leveraging our G and A, all while we scale our real estate footprint with the Infinite Kitchen, increase the pace of menu innovation and strategically invest in additional marketing. Looking ahead, we see significant opportunities to optimize operations, broaden our customer base, grow guest frequency and expand our footprint. With these focus areas in mind, our three strategic pillars for 2025 are: one, revolutionizing SaaS food through menu and technology innovation two, strengthening guest connection and operational excellence and lastly, strategically expanding and evolving our footprint. These strategies are designed to increase traffic and expand restaurant level margin. In 2024, we introduced grass fed pasture raised steak, which quickly became a guest favorite and helped drive traffic in check.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

We deployed the Infinite Kitchen in seven new restaurants and retrofitted three existing restaurants, leveraging automation to improve speed and consistency, all while reducing labor intensity. We continued expanding menu relevancy and building brand awareness as evidenced by double digit comps in the Midwest, Texas and the Southeast. Furthermore, the strength of our twenty twenty four restaurant class has laid a solid foundation for continued footprint expansion. We opened 25 new restaurants last year, bringing our total to two forty six, 12 of which are now Infinite Kitchens. We also expanded into three new markets with some of the strongest opening weeks in our history: Seattle, the Short North area of Columbus and Uptown Charlotte.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Our twenty twenty four class of new restaurants is on track to hit $2,800,000 in year one sales, right in line with our year two target. This reaffirms our confidence in our real estate strategy and the long term opportunity ahead. We're also pleased with the financial and operational performance of our Infinite Kitchens. These locations are delivering at least seven percentage points in labor savings and one point in improved COGS compared to restaurants of similar age and volume. Additionally, our class of Infinite Kitchens is driving higher native digital sales due to their high throughput and consistency, which leads to a better guest experience.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

We believe that Infinite Kitchen, together with our revamped loyalty program launching this year, can accelerate our industry leading digital presence. While we don't disclose individual store level performance, we have seen some standout proof points. For example, our Hingham, Massachusetts Infinite Kitchen had a 30% margin in its first full month compared to 26% for Naperville in its first full month in 2023. We continue to see proof points of operational efficiency, throughput and improved guest experience from the Infinite Kitchen. This is reflected in our January guest survey with 90% of guests surveyed expressing a positive overall experience, including the food and ingredient quality at Infinite Kitchen locations.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

As we move into 2025, we plan to accelerate unit growth by at least 15%. Our 2025 pipeline includes three new markets, Sacramento, Phoenix and Cincinnati, and we are opening at least 40 new restaurants. Half of the 40 will have infinite kitchens, and we are planning on one to three infinite kitchen retrofits of existing restaurants. We recognize the need for newness. Last year, we had two major launches, caramelized garlic steak and air fried brussels sprouts with six weeks of heightened marketing support.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

During that time, the business saw highly incremental and accelerated same store sales contributing to sustained momentum beyond the initial launch. As a result, in 2025, we are significantly increasing the pace of innovation across multiple areas of the business to create a steady drumbeat of newness to increase frequency, broaden our customer base and deepen brand loyalty. This includes an accelerated approach to menu innovation and the introduction of a new loyalty program supported by strategic investments in personalized CRM and paid media. These efforts will ensure we remain top of mind for our guests while creating more meaningful touch points throughout their journey with Sweetgreen. Let me take a moment to share with you one of the most exciting things we are rolling out next month, Ripple Fries.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Over the past year, we've been hard at work reimagining Fries, a fast food classic, in a way that is authentically Sweetgreen. Made with just five simple ingredients, Ripple Fries are hand cut daily in our restaurants and air fried in avocado oil. We are excited to lead the movement away from the deep frying of French fries. Each order comes with a side of new house made pickled ketchup or garlic aioli. Fries and salads have long been an iconic duo.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Ripple Fries are Sweetgreen's take on this classic pairing, offering our guests a signature craveable side that complements our vibrant produce driven menu. In 2025, we're building on our layered menu calendar with exciting new additions, starting with Ripple Fries and the collaboration with the Michelin Star Chef. We're also reintroducing three to four seasonals across summer and fall. With strong marketing support to drive traffic, we are excited to continue 2024 new product growth momentum into 2025. Another big moment for us in 2025 is the launch of our reimagined loyalty program, SG Rewards, rolling out nationwide in April.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

SG Rewards is our points based loyalty program where customers earn 10 points for every eligible dollar spent with opportunities to redeem free menu items and access unique offers and member exclusives. We designed these changes based on customer feedback that offers more compelling benefits to a broader set of customers. As we look forward, we have shifted capital internally towards more menu innovation and strategic media investment. We believe this combined with personalized CRM and our revamped loyalty program will accelerate transactions. Turning to operations.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

We have made great strides over the past couple of years. In 2024, our progress is evidenced by expanding margins 200 basis points and improving the team member experience. Our focus on our team members has resulted in strong stability and tenure at the head coach level and the lowest turnover levels in company history. Having stability at the head coach level and a strong pipeline of future leaders gives us a solid foundation as we continue to grow our footprint. We've designed a clear and structured career path that creates opportunities for professional development and advancement, allowing us to promote high performing talent while scaling Sweetgreen's culture.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Our team members can grow into a head coach in as few as three years. This year, more than half of our open restaurant leadership roles were filled from within, reinforcing our commitment to developing and growing our people. Our goal is to increase this percentage even further as we continue investing in internal talent and leadership development. In 2024, we made significant improvements to our labor optimization and deployment practices, and we see further opportunities for improvement in 2025. A key part of this is our new AI powered workforce management system, designed to optimize forecasting, scheduling and overall efficiency.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

This system gives team members an optional, user friendly mobile platform to manage their schedules, aligning their availability with restaurant needs. By leveraging AI, we are streamlining labor planning and improving shift coverage, freeing up our head coaches to focus more on team development and the guest experience. We've already deployed this system across nearly half our fleet and the early results are promising. On average, team members receive 10% more hours per week while reducing overtime expense. Additionally, absentee rates have dropped by a third.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Initial results like these reinforce our commitment to using technology to create a better, more seamless experience for our teams. We're on track to complete the rollout of our tool across all locations by the end of the second quarter. At SuiteGreen, technology and innovation have always been at the heart of our DNA, driving us to create smarter, more connected experiences for our guests and team members. We're always looking for ways to raise the bar on the quality and convenience a guest can expect from Sweetgreen, while strengthening our financial performance. For example, we continue to selectively upstream parts of our cold prep.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

These changes may seem small, but they free up our team to focus on service and speed, helping us drive throughput. In addition, we continue to make investments in elevating our culinary pro position along with optimized cooking recipes and hot holding times to elevate the quality and freshness of our food, a key to driving frequency. As we continue to refine our operational strategy, we see significant opportunities to capture additional peak demand across both our front and digital make lines. We have a number of initiatives designed to improve throughput while also improving consistency and portioning in our non IK restaurants. While we've made progress, further executional improvements are needed to fully unlock this potential, and we have several initiatives underway.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Before I turn over the call to Mitch, I want to acknowledge the devastating wildfires in Southern California and the impact on our community. As a Los Angeles Native, this is deeply personal to me. Our team members are safe and our restaurants are fully operational again. However, we recognize the challenges facing the local restaurant industry and community. In response to the fires, we have provided fresh meals to first responders and those displaced.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

We continue to work with local partners to support recovery efforts. Just as we did last year with our support of LA's local farmers markets, we're committed to standing by the farmers, team members and guests who make up our community, because food is about more than what's on the plate. It's about the people behind it. From day one, our mission has been about more than just serving food. It's about creating a better future by putting health, quality and communities at the center of our food system.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

We believe fast food should mean convenient access to real, high quality food that's both nourishing and sustainable. That's why we remain committed to sourcing from farmers we know and trust, supporting their transition to organic and regenerative practices and ensuring the integrity of the land and food we serve. Most importantly, we do all of this because it makes our food taste better. As we look forward, we believe that our culinary pipeline, loyalty launch and strategic investments in media and marketing will help us drive sales. Our focus is clear: strengthen the brand, drive guest engagement, expand our footprint strategically and operate with excellence.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

We believe that by staying true to our mission and executing with discipline, Tweeter will continue to redefine fast food for years to come. I'd like to thank our team for their hard work and dedication in 2024. Now I'll turn the call over to Mitch, who will take you through our financials in more detail.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Thank you, Jonathan, and good afternoon, everyone. Total revenue for the quarter was $160,900,000 up from $153,000,000 in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty three. Same store sales for the fourth quarter grew 4% against the prior year period. This consisted of a 4% benefit from menu price increases and flat traffic and mix. Our fourth quarter results lapped the highly successful Protein Plates launch in Q4 of twenty twenty three.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

For the fiscal year 2024, same store sales grew six percent. This consisted of a 4% benefit from menu price increases and 2% traffic and mix. Our average unit volume in the fourth quarter was 2,900,000. During the quarter, we opened 10 restaurants, almost half of which opened during the holiday season. We ended the year with a total of two forty six restaurants.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Additionally, in the fourth quarter, we retrofitted two high volume restaurants with the Infinite Kitchen, Willis Tower in Chicago and Wall Street in New York City. At the end of twenty twenty four, we operated 12 Infinite Kitchens. Restaurant level profit margin for the quarter was 17.4% compared to 16.2% a year ago, a more than 100 basis point improvement. This marks our eighth consecutive quarter of year over year restaurant level margin expansion. For the fiscal year, restaurant level profit margin was 19.6, expanding over 200 basis points year over year.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Restaurant level profit for the fourth quarter was $28,000,000 up 13% year over year. For a reconciliation of restaurant level profit and restaurant level margin comparable GAAP figures, please refer to the earnings release. Food, beverage and packaging costs were 27% of revenue for the quarter, a 100 basis point improvement from the prior year period. Labor and related expenses were 29% of revenue for the fourth quarter, favorable with the prior year period. Occupancy and related expenses were 9% of revenue remaining relatively consistent versus the prior year period.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Operating support center costs in the fourth quarter were relatively flat to the prior year period on a dollar basis. As a percentage of revenue, year over year, operating support center costs for the fourth quarter went down slightly to 16.3% from 16.7%. Net loss for the quarter was $29,000,000 as compared to a loss of $27,400,000 in the prior year period. This change was mainly due to a $1,700,000 increase in impairment associated with one restaurant and a $1,200,000 rise in pre opening costs with 10 new restaurant openings this year compared to just one last year. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes stock based compensation and certain other adjustments, was a loss of $600,000 for the fourth quarter, a $1,200,000 improvement from the fourth quarter of twenty twenty three.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

'20 '20 '4 marked our first full year of adjusted EBITDA profitability. For the fiscal year, we delivered an adjusted EBITDA of $18,700,000 versus a $2,800,000 loss in 2023. This is a $21,500,000 improvement. As a reminder, the 2023 loss of $2,800,000 includes a one time employee retention credit of $6,900,000 Adjusting for this retention credit, adjusted EBITDA grew by $28,400,000 dollars At the end of the year, we had an available cash balance of $215,000,000 We generated a positive operating cash flow of $43,400,000 an increase of $16,900,000 year over year. Now turning to our 2025 outlook.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

While the year started with many external challenges, including holiday shifts, extreme weather and the impact of wildfires in Los Angeles, we remain confident in the fundamental strength of our business. Our full year guidance reflects a first quarter shaped by these disruptions. Extreme weather in January and February affected guest traffic across approximately 60% of our fleet. The LA Wildfires, while not causing physical damage to our locations, significantly disrupted operations. Given that the Los Angeles market represents nearly 15% of our revenue, the temporary closures and ongoing shifts in customer behavior have created a near term headwind.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

To put this in perspective, LA delivered high single digit comps in 2024, while quarter to date in 2025, we have seen a decline to negative double digit comps. Additionally, we've made the strategic decision to shift the nationwide launch of RippleFries and its associated marketing from late winter to early spring. We believe this decision will help maximize the impact of this menu innovation and effectiveness of the associated marketing. For the fiscal year 2025, we anticipate the following: At least 40 net new restaurant openings revenue ranging from $760,000,000 to $780,000,000 same store sales growth between 13% restaurant level margins between 19.820.5% adjusted EBITDA between $32,000,000 and $38,000,000 On the development front, 20 of our 40 restaurants will feature the Infinite Kitchen. In terms of pipeline timing, 30 of our 40 planned new restaurants will open in the second half of the year.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

For the first quarter, we anticipate five net new restaurant openings. Revenue ranging from $163,000,000 to $166,000,000 Same store sales declined between 53% Restaurant level margin between 16.416.8% Adjusted EBITDA loss between $3,000,000 to $1,000,000 Despite the near term challenges, we are confident in our ability to execute against our long term strategy, while continuing to leverage our G and A. Our focus on loyalty, menu innovation and strategic investments and paid media position us to drive improved comps as the year progresses. We have built a strong business, a differentiated brand and a flexible omni channel platform that allows us to adapt and drive sustainable growth. 2024 was a strong year for Sweetgreen and our success would not have been possible without the dedication of our team members.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

And now, I'll turn the call back to the operator to start Q and A.

Operator

And your first question comes from the line of John Tower with Citi. Please go ahead.

Jon Tower
Jon Tower
Director & Equity Research - Consumer & Restaurants at Citigroup

Hey, great. Thanks for the update and happy to hear that in LA things are okay for your stores and your team. Just maybe pivoting to the marketing message, it sounds like you're changing some things quite a bit in 2025. Can you speak specifically to what you're doing from a media and marketing perspective and how from a dollar basis that's going to end up impacting your P and L?

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Hey, John, good to hear from you. So a lot of changes in marketing. I think one of the biggest lessons from 2024 was the importance of newness, and creating that drumbeat specifically around new menu launches. As many of you know, we used to have a seasonal menu with five menu changes a year. Last year, we made the decision to go to two launches with steak and harvest and really use the rest of the time to stabilize a lot of the rest of the operation.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

What we realized is that our frequent users really do love that newness and that seasonal menu. And so this year, we will be bringing back not only the seasonal menu, but a number of other big launches. So, chef collaborations, we have fries that we talked about coming as well as a loyalty program that will underpin a lot of this. With that, from a capital perspective, while we've been able to hold G and A relatively flat year over year, we are shifting more dollars towards marketing. So each launch will get more support.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

And you'll see a full funnel approach around that you know, from top of funnel out of home to a lot of social. And we've also made more investments in social media and owned content, which we think can be a big lever for us. So, expect to hear a lot more, from Sweetgreen, a lot more newness and a lot more new products, which we think our customers will really love.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

John, it's Mitch.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Just want to have one quick build on John's comment. Most of the increase in marketing support will begin in Q2 and run through the balance of the year. We were actually pretty light in Q1.

Jon Tower
Jon Tower
Director & Equity Research - Consumer & Restaurants at Citigroup

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Charles with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Andrew Charles
Managing Director at TD Cowen

Great. Thanks. Mitch, I was wondering if you could provide a little bit more textures around how 2025 is going to unfold. It sounds like the devastation in L. A. Creating about a 300 basis points overall headwind to start the year within that 3% to 5%. I would love to better understand what you're seeing from weather that's been impacting 6% of the stores.

Andrew Charles
Managing Director at TD Cowen

And then if I'm understanding it right, it sounds like you're expecting sales to build throughout the remainder of the year. So just confirming that's the case. And John, just one question for you. Within the guidance, are you embedding a handheld later in the year? I know it's been talked about on past calls, but was still in the recipe phase.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

I'll take the handheld. So one of the things, another change around our menu innovation is we've decided to really innovate a lot more, which means testing a lot more through our Stage Gate process. So handhelds are not built into the guide for the year. It is something that we will test this year Depending on the success and how we can operationalize it, we may see that come in. But right now, it is not built in at all.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

And again, look forward to the test and learning more. Early tests with consumers have been very, very positive. We know it's a big opportunity for us. But again, that is not built into the guide for the year.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Hi, Andrew. It's Mitch. Thank you for the question. Let me begin by saying that I think in retrospect, we were a little bit fortunate with our timing. But in the first quarter, certainly in Jan, Feb, company had very little to no new menu news and very little marketing support.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

We had pushed our calendar really starting in March to the back ten months of the year. In retrospect, I think that turned out to be a little fortuitous. In the first two months of the year, as everyone's articulated, we had a number of external factors that were honestly just much more severe than anything we've ever seen. Started off with the holiday week shifting the first week of the year, moved on to the LA fires, which I'll comment on in a minute, and then the weather factors throughout February. What we saw with the LA Fires, I commented in their script, that there's approximately 15% of our business. And we went from really comping high single digits in 2024 to being negative double digits in the January.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

When we look at the pace of where we're at, through February, the business has comped negative 6%, and we believe 700 basis points of that is attributable to these three factors. So without our any menu innovation or marketing, the business would have been positive around 1% through February. The business has improved considerably in February from January, and we see it sequentially building throughout the year. And to round out with your last comment, we do see Q2, Q3 and Q4 continuing to strengthen as we get further away from these events.

Andrew Charles
Managing Director at TD Cowen

That's very helpful. Thanks for the color.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dennis Geiger with UBS. Please go ahead.

Dennis Geiger
Dennis Geiger
Executive Director - Equity Research at UBS Group

Great. Good afternoon, guys. I wanted to ask about throughput. I guess both throughput within the traditional stores that opportunity if there's any way maybe I know it's early days, but anyway to kind of contextualize the potential impact there. And then I guess somewhat related maybe just on the IK side as we think about the AUV potential there, I know you guys have spoken to the, to the kiosk benefit and the lift there.

Dennis Geiger
Dennis Geiger
Executive Director - Equity Research at UBS Group

Is it still too soon or is there anything to start to touch on as it relates to what throughput within IK could mean and what those AUVs might mean relative to a standard restaurant? Thank you.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Sure. So, and hey, Dennis. So, on throughput, as you mentioned, we kind of look at it in two different ways. One is on the classic stores and then separately on the Infinite Kitchen restaurants. On the classic side, there's two things that we are working on, to drive throughput.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

One is we've been changing a lot of our labor deployment, getting more labor at peak and moving around and getting prep done earlier, so you have all hands on deck at peak. And we've seen some success in our test stores doing that. We've also been testing some planted positions, which we've seen some considerable benefits. It's what most of Fast Casual does. And it's something that we will do in many of our high volume stores.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

The other thing that we're testing is something that we call Project Turbo. And the idea of Project Turbo is being able to leverage both the digital and frontline at different points in the day. So, take the morning period where you have high demand on the digital make line, but not a lot of demand in, on the frontline, being able to leverage the front line to create to make digital orders. Then moving into the lunch period, being able to leverage the digital line to line bus the front line orders via handheld. And then as you go later in the day, being able to leverage the frontline again and find some labor efficiency as the digital orders drop off.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

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. So, it should allow us to capture more peak demand and do it in a more labor efficient way. As it relates to the Infinite Kitchen stores, we've talked about it before that IK can do about 500 orders per hour. So, you know, the throughput potential is amazing. We've done a lot of work on the finishing station, which is every bowl has to be finished and that's really where sometimes the bottlenecks arrive.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

We've actually redone our finishing stations, really kind of thinking about the ergonomics of those and how do we make it so we're more accurate and faster on those. And we've seen some really great results. So, the throughput on the IK should be a huge benefit for us as we get we put it in some locations with higher volumes. And in many of the locations that we already have live with the IK, we're seeing that. If you go to some of those restaurants, you go to Willis Tower today, you go to Penn Plaza, you'll see the ability for us to capture and get through a peak line quickly is pretty amazing.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

I mean, in those IK stores, even when you have tons and tons of demand, you're getting orders in sub five minutes. And so really excited about the potential that we'll offer as we continue to scale.

Dennis Geiger
Dennis Geiger
Executive Director - Equity Research at UBS Group

Good stuff. Thanks, Jonathan.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Sharon Zackfia with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Sharon Zackfia
Partner & Head of Consumer Equity Research & Analyst - Restaurants, Lifestyle & Leisure Brands at William Blair & Company, L.L.C

Hi. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to kind of double back to the 1% underlying comp trend through February. Was the delta between the 4% and the 1% that you've seen so far this year, is that all traffic that you've lost? Or did you roll off some price as well?

Sharon Zackfia
Partner & Head of Consumer Equity Research & Analyst - Restaurants, Lifestyle & Leisure Brands at William Blair & Company, L.L.C

As we entered 2025? I think you may have lost price.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Thanks, Sharon. We did roll off one point in price. And we'll continue to see some gradual roll off throughout the year.

Sharon Zackfia
Partner & Head of Consumer Equity Research & Analyst - Restaurants, Lifestyle & Leisure Brands at William Blair & Company, L.L.C

Okay. And then if I think about the bridge from that 1% underlying to kind of the implied 3% to five percent for the rest of the year, can you help us think about that bridge in terms of kind of marketing and loyalty and RippleFries and how that kind of builds and the what you expect for the benefit for those initiatives?

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Let me say at a high level, when we look out on the balance of the year, we have Ripple Fries launching in March, Loyalty launching in April. We are doing a major chef collaboration with the Michelin Starred Chef in month of May. And then we are returning our summer seasonals, which we dropped last year in 2024. And these were consistently some of our biggest selling items. And then we will have seasonals for fall and winter.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

We believe as we return these items that we know our customers have asked for that the transactional side of the business will grow and lift the comp sequentially throughout the year.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Rahul Khrothalwari, JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Rahul Krotthapalli
Rahul Krotthapalli
Vice President - Equity Research at JP Morgan

Good afternoon, guys. As you make changes in your marketing strategy, how are you planning to approach the brand positioning specifically from a value standpoint and communicating this attribute more effectively as this increasingly seems to be a key driver for organic traffic growth? And I have a follow-up.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Hey, Raul, good to hear from you. So a couple of things on that. One, we feel very good about our price value. Given what we do from a sourcing perspective and a made from scratch, we feel that we are offering terrific value. But we do see some opportunities to continue to improve there.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

One is going to be our loyalty program. The other is going to be how we start to introduce more menu items in kind of lower mid tiers and that's oftentimes where the seasonal menu played. So, you'll see us with the seasonal menu start to bring in some items kind of in more mid tier price ranges, which we think will again offer some value to our customers. The other thing that was important about the seasonals was it was a huge part of the story in brand positioning. The fact that you're supposed to kind of eat food with the seasons, 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 that will be that that's something that our consumers will really value and will resonate. So, I think the combination of these new menu items, thinking about price, and how we can continue to deliver on price combined with loyalty will continue to make us competitive in this space.

Rahul Krotthapalli
Rahul Krotthapalli
Vice President - Equity Research at JP Morgan

And the follow-up is on the Ripple price test you have had. What were some of the learnings? And did you what kind of attach rate did you see on the incidences from the customers? And also, did you test the loyalty app in those stores? Just curious

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

to hear your thoughts here.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

So, we're not commenting on the attach rate, but what I could say is it's the highest attach side that we've ever had and tested, and totally incremental. The feedback has been pretty amazing from consumers. It's craveable. It's this permissible indulgence where you can have your salad and get the fries on the side. And not only are the fries amazing and done only with five ingredients, no seed oils, cooked in olive oil and baked and air fried, But we're also price you know, the price will be pretty attractive for those.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

So, we feel good about the price value of those. I think some of the learnings around it, and I talked about this a little bit in my prepared remarks, was around optimizations we're making around our Culinary pro and our and how we more consistently cook food and hold it for less times. And I think that was one of the big lessons with Ripple Fries. It's one of those products that we have to cook continuously throughout the day for them to be fresh. And what that has done is made the whole operation stronger because it's forced us to strengthen that muscle, really elevate that culinary proposition, certify them and make sure that that cooking hold times are optimized.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

So we've seen some pretty we've seen a lot of delight from our customers as we continue to improve the quality of our food through the hot prep. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Catherine Griffin with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Katherine Griffin
Katherine Griffin
Analyst at Bank of America

Hi, thank you. Mitch, I was hoping you could walk through your expectations around the different components of restaurant level margin, maybe how, you know, how sustainable is 27%, you know, food costs and how, you know, how much more, benefit can you get from some of the labor productivity and operational, improvements that John was speaking to earlier? Just trying to get a sense for, yes, the components and I guess even the, how you expect like sequential margin progression to play out?

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Thanks, Catherine. Let me say that our restaurant level margins have increased annually really since the company went public at a pretty fast pace and we feel pretty confident in maintaining increasing margins on an annual basis going forward. And that is absent the Infinite Kitchen, which has just been an accelerator to that. When we look at what's going to drive the margins, we break it into three big buckets, labor, cost of goods and occupancy. In labor, we see continued opportunities with improved scheduling and deployment of labor throughout the store, much of which we've seen in the past.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

And we have a lot of opportunity going forward. We've seen our labor situation improve to really the best it's been in the several years with the lowest turnover and lowest absentee rate, all which contributes to higher productivity in the store. Our cost of goods always improves as we obtain scale in markets. And as our markets are developing and growing, and we're especially happy with the new market performance in the business right now, we see great opportunities to let more leverage in our cost of goods and distribution. And finally, our occupancy expense, which frankly is run a little bit high to the industry, is a function of the urban centricity of our footprint.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

As the company grows in areas outside of New York City, we see our occupancy continuing to come down over the next several years. So we feel pretty good about where we're at, really at that 20% level and see the opportunity for the margin absent the IK to continue to progress into the low 20s and then getting a big acceleration as the IK gets deployed across the fleet.

Katherine Griffin
Katherine Griffin
Analyst at Bank of America

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Mullen with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Brian Mullan
Brian Mullan
Director & Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies

Thank you. Question on development. I think one of your goals is to get the cost to build down of the base store independent of whatever the additional Infinite Kitchen equipment might cost. So, can you just talk about where you are in those efforts? What's a good way to think about cost to build for the class of '25? And could that maybe even be lower in '26?

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Yeah. Great question. It's something we're hugely focused on. We as you mentioned, we have about at least 40 stores planned this year. We've done a lot of work on our core build out costs, really getting our the core prototype right and allowing us to buy more in bulk as well as optimizing a lot of other pieces of the build out.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Our goal is, we're tracking from somewhere between one point four and one point five on the core build out. We do see opportunity to continue to bring that down and are hopeful that in 2026, we'll see even more improvements there. So, overall, really good progress and shout out to our development team that's been working really hard to continue to drive this down.

Brian Mullan
Brian Mullan
Director & Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies

Okay. Thank you. And then, a follow-up, a lot of talk of menu innovation on this call, which is exciting. You know, I'm wondering, do you need to kind of dual track any kind of menu simplification or SKU reduction? Or if not that, you know, maybe accelerate some of the upstreaming you've been doing on the food prep side?

Brian Mullan
Brian Mullan
Director & Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies

Really just asking for your assessment if the restaurants are set up to handle all this innovation that's coming?

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

Yes. It's a great point. And the short answer is yes. We're always looking at how we can kind of simplify the restaurant and make room for some of the innovations. We have only so many hours and so much complexity we have in the box.

Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman
Co-Founder and CEO at Sweetgreen

So whether it be upstreaming initiative, tools to make their job easier or looking at other recipes, just kind of simplify, we constantly look at how we can better simplify and optimize the menu. And as we continue to innovate, expect more simplification to come to allow us to streamline the operation.

Brian Mullan
Brian Mullan
Director & Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Christine Cho with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Christine Cho
Christine Cho
Vice President at Goldman Sachs

Thank you for the opportunity to ask the question. So now with 12 IKs live in different trade zones, I'm just wondering if there is any new learnings that you've took away. So for instance, seems like consumers now have the choice to decide whether they want their food prepped by employee or whether there's any differential versus your earlier IKs? And lastly, whether there's any differential versus your earlier IKs? And lastly, just also any plans for retrofits this year in your plans?

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Hi, Christine. Thanks for the question on the IK. Let me begin by saying the company remains very pleased with the IK and the IK performance. At the end of Q4, we had 12 up and running. And I should say six of those 12 opened in the fourth quarter.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

So we're particularly pleased at how we've been able to accelerate the pace of deployment. And you're correct, they're across a wide variety of geographies. They continue to show pretty consistently seven points of labor savings and one point to cost of goods improvement. And we're very pleased with them. In terms of customer satisfaction, we just did a survey and I believe we had a 90% customer favorable approval of the IK stores.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

So that's probably most important for us. We're seeing pretty decent comp growth in them. Our Penn Plaza, which is a retro that was completed in mid July is comping around 15%, I would say, on its digital lines, which is really the critical line for an IK. And, the other stores are really a little bit too new to really add much about how they're performing from a comp perspective, except to say that Willis Tower is just on pace to set all sorts of records for us. Very, very focused on where we deploy the IK in 2025.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

We have at least 20 new IKs being in new stores, and that's around a 50% of the 40 new stores we're going to open. I should say the vast majority of those will be in the back half of the year. We have at least one to three retros coming and we plan on relocating two stores, both in New York and they will contain the IK in their relocations. So altogether, at least 25 new IKs being deployed in 2025.

Christine Cho
Christine Cho
Vice President at Goldman Sachs

Thank you.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Brian Harbour
Brian Harbour
Equity Analyst & Executive Director - Restaurants & Food Distribution at Morgan Stanley

Yes. Thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Mitch, I guess, just to that point, is there not a desire to do some retrofits faster? Or do you think that might be the case in 2026, '20 '20 '7?

Brian Harbour
Brian Harbour
Equity Analyst & Executive Director - Restaurants & Food Distribution at Morgan Stanley

And I assume that kind of the margin number you talked about kind of IK being an accelerant for margins. I assume that what you're talking about for this year includes all the IKs that are already operating and will be by the end of the year, right?

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

Hi, Brian. Thanks for the question. Yes, the guide on the margins certainly includes the IKs. I think you're right, there is a desire to do more renovations of stores and place the IK in them. That's particularly too in high volume stores.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

I think you'll see that accelerate in 2026 and 2027. I think it's really a few things. One is the amount of, just constraints on the IK team with how fast they can deploy IKs and getting them better balanced throughout the year. As I said, they're really back end loaded in 2025. And the second thing about the remodels is there is a disruption to the store for some period of time.

Mitch Reback
Mitch Reback
CFO at Sweetgreen

And we're trying to balance that as we select exactly which stores to go into and how to do it in kind of slower time periods for the store, so we don't disrupt them in the height of their season. And that's because we really want to prioritize high volume stores for the remodeling.

Brian Harbour
Brian Harbour
Equity Analyst & Executive Director - Restaurants & Food Distribution at Morgan Stanley

Sounds good. Thanks.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

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