Salad Story is an original concept of healthy fast food restaurants. The brand has Polish roots, uses local suppliers and ingredients.
Movens Capital supports Salad Story's growth
Salad Story was founded in 2007. Since 2018, Movens Venture Capital (one of Movens Capital funds) has been present in the company as an investor – minority shareholder, actively supporting its development.
Currently, it is the largest chain of healthy restaurants in Poland, managed by Anna Krajewska – its co-founder, a passionate enthusiast of healthy food.
"We have been on the market for 17 years. This gives us a huge advantage of experience, which we use on an ongoing basis when running our restaurants. Poland is one of the fastest growing markets in the European Union in terms of spending on catering services, which makes it an ideal place for our further development. The company's highly scalable business model also supports this. We analyze the market and take into account various strategic options that will allow us to achieve our goals in the near future," says Anna Krajewska, co-founder and CEO of Salad Story SA
Salad Story Plan: New location every month
Currently, Salad Story is still developing dynamically. It has restaurants in 52 locations (shopping centers, office buildings, airports) in major Polish cities, and plans to double their number by 2028, which gives an average of 1 new restaurant per month.
The company has historically developed in food courts, which remain an important element of its operations, but at the same time the growing potential of offices, shopping streets and communication hubs is visible and it intends to enter this trend by diversifying its locations. Ultimately, in Poland alone it sees the potential to reach the level of 150 points. Importantly, the company bases its acceleration of growth and value creation on opening its own premises, it has appropriate dedicated structures for this and this method is the most effective for it, and it treats franchising as a supplement.
– In the case of Salad Story, the return on investment in a new restaurant is on average 1.5 years, which is 2-3 times better than the market standard. This is due, among other things, to the fact that the restaurants do not need to install expensive equipment, such as ovens or fat separators, because all these elements are located in the central kitchen – the chain says.
"There is a significant potential for consolidation on the Polish market due to the large number of interesting, independent entities. I think we will want to join this trend, either on our own or with interested partners. This is one of the options we are considering. Our advantage is the high recognition of the Salad Story brand in Poland, we are no. 1 when it comes to healthy food. But what is equally important to us – this brand is also very universal, thanks to which it has a large export potential, expansion to foreign markets. This will probably be one of the elements of our further development," sums up Anna Krajewska.
Salad Story is supported in choosing the optimal path for further development, including acquiring a potential partner, by Azimutus, a leading independent advisor in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) processes in Poland, operating on a European scale, with offices in Warsaw, Geneva, Brussels and Oxford.
"Salad Story stands out on the market with its exceptional growth rate, unique business model allowing for rapid scalability and presence in the fastest growing market segment focused on healthy food. This is the perfect recipe for success," sums up Michał Krucan, Director at Azimutus.
