Dive Brief:

• Health-focused salad chain sweetgreen has acquired Galley Foods, a Washington, D.C.-based meal service that delivers ready-to-eat food, according to a company release. The companies did not disclose the purchase price. 
• This is sweetgreen's first acquisition, and the deal will give the restaurant access to Galley's logistics technology, live courier operations and production capacity. Galley Foods' CEO Alan Clifford will become sweetgreen's VP of Logistics. 
• Galley Foods will continue to operate in D.C. and will tap into sweetgreen's supply chain of regional growers, producers and distributors. Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman said in the release that the company looks forward to leveraging "Galley Foods' unparalleled insight into delivery."

Dive Insight:

Sweetgreen's appetite for off-premise innovation seems to be growing. Last fall, the chain launched a delivery-catering hybrid called Outpost to cut out third-party delivery middlemen during lunch. Outpost pickup stations, which sweetgreen has deployed in WeWork, Nike and Headspace offices, allow customers to order salads and bowls via the chain's website or app for delivery to these designated spots with no delivery fee. 

The concept caters to the Holy Trinity of modern diner demands: convenience, affordability and health-focused fare. But it's unclear how the system has performed, or how much it has expanded, since its launch in October. Still, Galley's meal delivery experience could help sweetgreen bolster this and other off-premise programs, especially since it also specializes in fresh foods. Sweetgreen currently partners with third-party providers for standard delivery orders so its partnership with Galley could help it move toward building out its own fleet.

"We're both companies with D.C. roots, and we're like-minded in our mission and in our commitment to our customers to better understand them and meet them wherever they are," Neman said in the release. 

The Outpost program also allows customers to use their loyalty points, another incentive to not order through services like DoorDash and Uber Eats. Sweetgreen's digital ordering platform drives almost half of all of its orders, and Neman told Forbes in the past that the company will continue investing in blockchain technology to improve its supply chain traceability as it works to make its products more accessible.

Galley's experience could also help sweetgreen ensure quality food safety as it ramps up its delivery and catering capabilities. Sweetgreen hopes to expand Outposts to 3,000 locations by the end of the year, a goal Galley's infrastructure and experience could expedite.