How Sweetgreen is run
At the end of 2025 Sweetgreen owned and operated 281 restaurants in 24 states and Washington, D.C. (Sweetgreen annual report, 2025)
Franchises like Sweetgreen
If you want to own a salad business, these franchise brands sell the closest thing to Sweetgreen, largest first.
| Brand | Cost to open | Fee | Royalty | Locations | Sales a location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken Salad ChickFee $50K · Royalty 5% · Sales $1.5M a location | $777K–$999K | $50K | 5% | 326+102 in 3 yrs | $1.5M |
| Chopt Creative Salad Co.Fee $40K · Royalty 5% | $870K–$1.58M | $40K | 5% | 94+24 in 3 yrs | – |
| SaladworksFee $35K · Royalty 6% · Sales $763K a location | $484K–$678K | $35K | 6% | 84−17 in 3 yrs | $763K |
| CRISP & GREENFee $50K · Royalty 7%, subject to minimums · Sales $1.7M a location | $643K–$1.4M | $50K | 7%, subject to minimums | 50+21 in 3 yrs | $1.7M |
| Just SaladFee $30K · Royalty 6% | $306K–$1.25M | $30K | 6% | 47+20 in 3 yrs | – |
Locations are US locations, franchised and company-owned, at the end of the latest year filed. Sales are yearly, before costs, where the brand publishes them.
Chicken Salad Chick is the largest, with 326 US locations, and Just Salad costs least to open, from $306,375. Chicken Salad Chick added the most locations, +102 over 3 years. Of the brands that publish sales, CRISP & GREEN reports the most per location, $1.7M a year. The typical restaurant franchise starts at $408K to open; see where the money goes.
Sources
Questions
Which of these salad franchises loses the fewest owners?
Chicken Salad Chick. About 1.0% of its franchised locations a year closed, were terminated or weren't renewed over the years its latest filing covers, against 10.0% a year at Saladworks. Buy-backs by the franchisor and sales to new owners don't count as exits. Failure rates by brand