Scaling Justly with Just Salad

Speaker 1:
Welcome to TD Cowan Insights, a space that brings leading thinkers together to share insights and ideas shaping the world around us. Join us as we converse with the top minds who are influencing our global sectors.
Andrew Charles:
I'm Andrew Charles. I'm TD Cowan's restaurant analyst. I'm here live at the 10th annual Future of the Consumer Conference and really excited to be joined by Jared Garber. He's the CFO of Just Salad. Jared, thanks so much for joining us today.
Jared Garber:
Thanks for having me, Andrew.
Andrew Charles:
Jared, how do you differentiate in the salad category?
Jared Garber:
Yeah, it's not easy, Andrew, but I think for us, we focus on really what's important in the business, serving the best quality food to our guests, doing it at an effective price point and serving it quick in most cases, it's a fast casual concept, but making sure that we're really connecting with the guests. And from a food quality perspective, our restaurants are getting shipments of fresh produce every day. We are cooking our proteins, marinating them in-house, cooking them throughout the day, cutting our chicken on the line in front of the guests. So there's a freshness aspect of what we do in the food that we serve, which is I think critically important.
At the end of the day, it's a restaurant business. The food is ultimately what's going to matter. And I think that's a place where we really do lean in on food quality and making sure that it's at a great value for consumers. I think those are the points that we really focus on every day to differentiate. What's funny, for a concept that's called Just Salad, only about 50% of our sales actually are salads at this point. We serve warm bowls, we have Market Plates, we have a great wrap, a smoothie program. So we really are a differentiated, I think, concept in the category, that's hitting the consumer at several different points. And I think that can also be leveraged for lunch and dinner across the day parts.
Andrew Charles:
That's great. And a founder-run concept, your CEO, Nick Kenner. Talk about the magic, about the hardest part of scaling here without losing what really makes you special.
Jared Garber:
Yeah, I think what people tend to forget sometimes is that running restaurants is truly a day in and day out operating business. And I think it's not always the sexiest thing, but operating really good restaurants day in and day out, 120 of them now, and as we continue to grow 150, 200 plus, the detail to do it every single day and to do it right for every single customer I think, is the secret sauce. And that is what's both challenging and I think what differentiates concepts. So I think for us, every single day it's about putting the customer first, making sure that we're making the right decisions for the guests that are walking through the door. And those are different things.
It's obviously making sure that the product is fresh and tastes good, but it's simple things like making that connection with the customer when they walk in. And connection looks really different for a customer in Midtown at lunch than it does in South Florida at five o'clock in the evening. It's a different type of connection that's required, but what we really focus on day in, day out is making sure that our product is great, our price points are fair and the consumer understands that. And then making sure that operationally our teams are executing at a really high level.
Andrew Charles:
Yeah. 120 stores, obviously you guys are most concentrated here in the tri-state, but you guys have pretty vast penetration, as you mentioned, down in Florida, in Chicago as well. Have you guys though about the U.S. TAM and how big that could be for you?
Jared Garber:
We've definitely thought about it. I don't know that I'm going to sit here today and put a number on that, because I've seen plenty of folks do that and I don't know that it necessarily helps anyone. What I will say, is I think that we have the building blocks to be a national brand, to be across the country. So right now, as you said, primarily an East Coast based brand. About half of our stores are up here in the New York metro area. But as we look across the country, we see a tremendous number of markets that have the right consumer for our brand. And I think as we continue to expand into markets further away from our core home base here in New York, we really see the customer really excited about us coming to those markets. I think for us, it gives us a lot of confidence that we can continue to scale and be the salad player across the country.
Andrew Charles:
Just underpinning that growth, can you talk about the cash-on-cash returns that you guys see and really efforts in place to really help amplify these even further? Whether it's through strong new storm volumes, a.k.a. the numerator or lower CapEx per box, the denominator?
Jared Garber:
Yeah, for us, it's a bit of both. I'm really proud of the returns that we have as a business. Our baseline is can we open restaurants and run them at 40% year two cash-on- cash returns? In the last two to three years, we're running north of 50%. So really proud of what our team has been able to physically put on the ground. Some of that special sauce is our build costs. We're consistently keeping our gross builds under a million dollars, which is obviously a really important part of that, as you said, the denominator. And then on the sales side, it's always trying to figure out ways that we can continue to hone operations, give the customer more of what they want, find what's trending, make sure that we're hitting on all those fronts. And we're constantly focused on both of those things.
And there's a lot of pressure on both of those lines right now for everyone across the industry. You've got tariffs, you've got inflation. The customer in certain pockets of the country is not spending as much as they used to. So we're really focused on doing all the things that we can internally that are inside of our control to both drive sales and make sure that we can keep all that discipline on the build cost side.
Andrew Charles:
Yeah, you and I visited a location together that's drive-through in New Jersey. I'd love to know more about that format. Is that something that you want to see more of for the brand? Does the brand have permission to play in drive-through? Just would love to know more about what you're seeing there.
Jared Garber:
Yeah. Drive-throughs are really exciting for us. I think number one, we're very proud of the fact that we have a true drive-through. It's not a pickup window, it's not a digital order in advance window. You can very much like an old school drive-through in the burger category, you drive up, you speak to somebody through our menu board at the window. We are consistently getting really impressive drive-through times through that window. And that's a metric that we consistently watch to make sure that we have the ability to actually scale this type of format.
It is something that we're very excited about. We've opened another two or three of them already this year in Connecticut and up in Massachusetts. So really excited about seeing the momentum of those stores. And really it's a differentiated way for customers to interact with the brand. It also opens up, in my opinion, not necessarily the TAM per se, but it opens up the format and how you think about where you can really meet customers where they are. In many of the markets that we're going in, the suburban markets have been really strong for us. The customers there are looking for newness. They're excited when we're there. Inevitably, convenience is a huge part of what that consumer is looking for, and I think the drive-through helps to execute that.
Andrew Charles:
I want to talk as well just around GLPs. This is something that we get some questions on from investors. And your menu very intrinsically caters to people using these drugs, high in protein, high in fiber. And so is this something you guys talk about a lot internally around GLPs? And how do you set yourselves up for success if we were seeing a tipping point where GLP usage were to surge?
Jared Garber:
Yeah, it's not something that we talk about actively throughout the day. I mean, of course it comes up, everyone's talking about it, whether that's in the news or in people's personal lives. So it comes up, but it's definitely not something that we're focused on from a business strategy. Having said that, like you said, what we serve and what we do naturally caters to a consumer who I think is thinking about health, generally speaking, more than the average consumer. Having said that, I think there are certain things that consumers are looking for now, and I think in part we have a good opportunity to communicate the macros a bit more.
We were one of the first concepts, I think maybe the first to ever do calorie counts and carbon labeling on our menus. So we were pretty early adopters when it comes to nutrition and being upfront and open about that and helping consumers understand what they were eating. We'll continue to do that. I think what the GLP-1 trend or craze, I'm not sure what you want to call it, but I think what that's doing is opening a lot of people's eyes to thinking more about what food is on their plates and what food that goes into their body, and I think we'll stand to win from that.
Andrew Charles:
Another thing I want to talk to you about is automation. This is something that we've seen a little bit in practice in the fast casual industry. And I'm curious just with your assembly line format, is this something you internally discuss as an opportunity in your assembly line or is this something that you view as maybe a bridge too far?
Jared Garber:
It's definitely something we're focused on. It would be remiss if we weren't thinking about automation in some way, shape or form. The view that we have internally is that it's still really important for people to serve people. And we want our customers coming through the door every day and being greeted by somebody who's friendly and that human interaction, that touchpoint is really important. Sometimes I think a lot about some of the concepts that are really heavily leaning on automation. One bad experience with the food, and it doesn't have to be bad, it could just be like, oh, the burger wasn't that hot, or it forgot the cheese, or whatever it might be, if an automated machine is making that, you lose all emotional connection that says, "Oh, they forgot the cheese. Maybe I'll come back next time."
When you have people there doing that and you get to know them, and people visit our stores pretty frequently and we've got guests who know the cashiers and vice versa, and I think those points are really important. So for us, the frontline's going to continue to be human serving humans. Are there ways that we're thinking about automating and digitizing things for either digital orders or back of the house prep? Very much so. Nothing live today in our restaurants, but there's a number of things that we're testing internally to make it easier for our people to serve guests. I would much rather have our employees serving a customer upfront than cutting a sweet potato in the middle of the day.
Andrew Charles:
Absolutely. Yeah, I want to talk about marketing as well. It's been a big focus within the fast casual industry in 2025. And we would love to better understand the key wins of Just Salad's use of marketing in 2025 and how that informs the marketing strategy in '26.
Jared Garber:
Yeah, so '25 was a big year for us, both on culinary and marketing. And obviously those two work hand in hand at a restaurant company. So we launched a brand new platform last year, which was Market Plates, which was really just around this time last year. I think April or so last year we launched it. So most of our marketing focus last year was really about promoting that new item, making sure that customers understood that we had it, that we're not just salad. It's been a great platform for us, very quickly seeing that penetration where we wanted it to be. We are seeing the incrementality on the guest frequency. So all those things are hitting. So a lot of the focus on marketing was really about that product launch or that product line launch for us.
What we're seeing, I think more broadly, and I think something that we're thinking about and our marketing teams are really focused on, is somewhat of a shift where social has become really a place where you can see a lot of return for your ad spend. And it really does seem like the consumer is gravitating more and more towards those channels, whether that's Meta, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all of the above are really important. And it seems like that's what's best at cutting through right now versus any traditional type of media. So I think for us, really focused on where we can spend and get the most return and bang for our buck on the marketing side and really be thoughtful around it.
Andrew Charles:
Jared, I saved the hardest question for last. What's your go-to Just Salad?
Jared Garber:
That is a tough question, because I eat Just Salad four or five days a week, so I do have to rotate. But I can list off a couple quick ones for me that I like to keep in the rotation. So my favorite salad is probably the Tokyo Super Greens. It's one of the originals, but I still love it. I actually like to get it with tofu. I think our tofu is awesome, and it is always good to change it up from chicken every now and then. And then my number two would be our Cilantro Lime Chicken Bowl, which I think is one of the most flavorful things that we do.
Andrew Charles:
Yeah, yeah, the Chicken Poblano, you sub in the Harissa chicken, make it a little spicy. That's definitely a go-to for me.
Jared Garber:
That's the Big Mac at Just Salad, the Crispy Chicken Poblano.
Andrew Charles:
It's great. Well, Jared, thanks so much for joining us here at the TD Future of the Consumer Conference. Really appreciate the time and insights.
Jared Garber:
Thanks, Andrew.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for joining us. Stay tuned for the next episode of TD Cowan Insights.