Dive Brief:
- Sweetgreen is launching a new catering format, the “Build Your Own Sweetgreen Bar,” the company said in a Thursday press release.
- The bar is available from select locations nationwide and is served in increments of 10 up to 10,000 and allows hosts to mix and max bases, proteins, toppings and dressings.The chain said availability was expanding but did not respond to a request to clarify how many of its 280 stores currently offer the bar.
- The new service could help pull Sweetgreen out of a disastrous sales slump. The chain’s losses deepened last year and it sold Spyce, an in-house tech firm, to Wonder for $186 million to raise cash.
Dive Insight:
In Q3 2025, Sweetgreen’s traffic fell by 11.7% year over year. Most of the publicly traded fast casual chains saw strong same-store sales growth through 2024, but a stagnation — or decline — in 2025. This shift in market dynamics has pushed chains to look for new solutions, and competitors, such as Chipotle, are also emphasizing catering options.
The Build Your Own Sweetgreen Bar comes with different greens and grains bases, a choice of protein, toppings, dressings, bread and optional premium upgrades like steak, salmon and avocado, the chain said. This option is more flexible than its existing catering menu of individual bowls and bundles.
Zipporah Allen, the chain’s chief commercial officer, framed the catering bar as a healthy, high-quality option that avoids compromising on choice and convenience.
While large scale catering options give brands a greater ability to capture large ticket orders, they come with operational challenges. Large orders require greater prep, different packaging, different sequencing and hand-off procedures. These operational complexities can drag on the efficiency and ticket times of high-volume or unprepared restaurants.
Operational complexity was the Achilles’ heel for Sweetgreen’s previous major effort to reverse its sales weakness. The Ripple Fry, an air-fried better-for-you take on the French fry, was supposed to expand Sweetgreen’s appeal and ability to draw consumers. Popular in testing, the menu item proved a pain for actual in-restaurant operations, distracting teams and hampering their ability to execute on the brand’s core products.
Sweetgreen did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the changes or training the chain has undertaken to integrate large-scale catering orders into its operations.
