Sweetgreen is seeing a different type of green today after exploding in its market debut. 💚 💸
The salad chain popped over 76% as it tested investors’ appetites for yet another foody IPO. Sweetgreen is now valued at over $3.5 billion. $SG raised $364 million from the listing.
Food IPOs this year have been mixed (that’s putting it nicely), but Sweetgreen’s big listing proves investors were ready to dig into the “fast casual” restaurant growth narrative. After all, Sweetgreen has just 140 stores concentrated in high-volume urban areas.
But don’t be fooled — those 140 stores have delivered big revenue, like $220 million in 2020. Although 2020’s revenue coincided with an equally-beefy $141 million loss, investors are willing to write off 2020 as a down year for Sweetgreen (and most brands/people for that matter.)
When Sweetgreen filed for an S-1 in Sept. 2021, same-store sales had risen 21% YoY, recovering much of the company’s lost same-store sales from 2020. These numbers are also a far-cry from Sweetgreen’s state in October 2020 when the company announced a massive layoff of a fifth of its staff.
Now, the salad chain is pivoting from its stronghold in city centers to suburban areas, which outperformed during the pandemic. Sweetgreen also has indicated ambitions to automate its restaurants in the S-1 filing, which was partially confirmed during its acquisition of Spyce, a Boston restaurant company notable for its automated kitchen.
Where is Sweetgreen headed post-IPO?? Hopefully somewhere even sweeter. 😉