The Salad Station Forecasts Continued Growth in 2020, After Nearly Doubling its Size in 2019

The Salad Station is proud of its farming heritage that emphasizes serving fresh, local ingredients and minimizing waste, and it is committed to providing top-notch leadership support to new and existing franchisees so that this legacy continues and grows. For these reasons and more, it’s no wonder that the emerging healthy-eating brand saw major franchise success in 2019.

The Salad Station was first founded in 2012 by mother-and-son duo Scott and Cindy Henderson. The brand quickly set itself apart from the competition by offering over 100 toppings and a daily hot bar and continues to innovate its menu, most recently adding on-the-spot chop-and-wrap options. Since opening up to franchising in 2015, The Salad Station has been providing satisfied franchisees with a simplified business model, flexible operations, family-friendly hours, a low cost of entry and an innovative approach to healthy eating. Now, The Salad Station is looking to partner with hard-working, family-focused individuals that are eager to dedicate themselves to growing the brand.

The numbers prove that The Salad Station is on the right track. Not only did The Salad Station nearly double in size in 2019 with the opening of 11 new stores, but the Louisiana-based brand also added eight of its salad robots, called SALLYs, in 2019. The Salad Station plans to keep this momentum going and have a total unit count of 50 restaurants open or in development by the end of 2020 and 100 by the end of 2021. The brand would also like to have at least 40 more SALLYs by the end of 2020.

The Salad Station leadership team is especially focused on making sure current franchisees continue to feel supported.

“In 2019, we were heavily focused on opening new restaurants,” Henderson said. “This year, we hope to open many more, but we are especially focused on the success of our current stores. We want to make sure we simplify our systems even further and make franchising with the Salad Station an even more enjoyable experience for owners who want to maximize their family time and their time with customers.”

The Salad Station will achieve its 2020 goals thanks in part to ramped up marketing efforts, which included adding new key members to the leadership team in 2019.

“Internally, marketing has been one of the biggest things we’re most excited about,” he said. “So far, we’ve been very operationally driven, so we’re excited to have beefed up our marketing efforts. Now we feel like a lot of our growth will be our marketing and the value that marketing brings to franchisees. We’ll also have more limited-time offers, new in-store signage and more social media efforts in 2020. I’m very excited to see what’s in store for us.”

Brand goals for 2020 also include making third-party delivery available across the entire franchise system and boosting employee recognition and retention efforts. The Salad Station strongly prioritizes providing welcoming customer service in its stores, and since the brand does not require the use of hot grills or other types of heavy machinery, store managers can focus on hiring employees for personality. This lends itself well to a family-friendly environment that makes a huge impact in the communities the brand serves.

In terms of target markets for 2020, The Salad Station would like to expand its footprint with new and existing franchisees throughout its home state of Louisiana, as well as in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and Texas. Target cities in which The Salad Station expects it would do well include Houma, Louisiana; Monroe, Louisiana; Oxford, Mississippi, Pensacola, Florida and Shreveport, Louisiana.

“The Salad Station leadership team is confident the brand will do well in these markets, and we are excited to speak with prospective franchisees who want to represent the brand and follow our proven model,” Henderson said. “We can’t wait to have these conversations and talk about the many resources we provide our franchise system.”

With a timely mission to provide fresh, healthy salads in a friendly atmosphere, The Salad Station is on track to impact new and existing markets in 2020 and beyond.

The Salad Station has a franchise investment of around $200,000. To learn more about franchising with the Salad Station, visit https://thesaladstation.com/franchising.