Dive Brief:
- Sweetgreen hired Rossann Williams as its chief operating officer, effective Monday, the company said in a press release.
- Williams, who left Starbucks in 2022 after more than 18 years, has over 30 years of experience in retail, including working at Blockbuster and Toys “R” Us. She succeeds Chris Carr, who resigned last March.
- Williams joins the chain as Sweetgreen targets more suburban locations and plans to automate all future restaurants with its Infinite Kitchen system within the next five years.
Dive Insight:
In her new role, Williams will oversee operations, real estate and development and supply chain, according to the press release. Her experience at Starbucks has prepared her to support Sweetgreen’s ongoing growth strategies. At Starbucks, where she last held the title of EVP and president of North America retail, she oversaw 16,000 stores, helped open thousands of new locations and improved same-store sales.
A William Blair report noted that while Williams was EVP and president of North America retail at Starbucks from 2018 to 2022, average weekly sales rose 30% and over 700 new locations opened during that time.
She also held several leadership positions, including SVP, global and Americas operations services. Prior to Starbucks, she worked at Blockbuster for five years and Toys “R” Us for six years, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“Rossann is an industry veteran with a proven track record in driving sustainable growth of global, iconic brands and leading teams to generate profitability,” said Jonathan Neman, Sweetgreen CEO and co-founder. “Rossann complements the existing skills and experience of our leadership team as we pursue our next chapter of growth.”
Williams marks the latest addition the the fast casual chain’s executive team. Last August, it hired Michael Kotick as head of marketing and Chad Brauze as head of culinary.
“Alongside sweetgreen’s founding triad and its long-term CFO, we believe the wider lens of experience afforded by the new hires bodes well for the company’s ability to scale, innovate, and hone its store-level execution—of particular importance as sweetgreen enters a year that will see a wider rollout of Infinite Kitchens,” Sharon Zackfia, analyst at William Blair, said in a report emailed to Restaurant Dive.
The chain’s chief development officer left in December. Timothy Noonan, VP of operations, strategy and restaurant concept design, was promoted to SVP, development and took on many of the CDO’s former responsibilities.
Sweetgreen, which has over 220 units, expects to open seven to nine Infinite Kitchens this year and two to four retrofits, Neman said during a November earnings call. The company expects to open between 23 and 28 new stores this year, with Infinite Kitchen openings expected to “be weighted towards the back half of the year.” Retrofits will be completed in stores in high-volume urban locations that will benefit from faster throughput. This move will likely translate into higher revenue and return on capital, Neman said.
“We remain focused on expanding our footprint in a capital-efficient manner, to capture the white space and expect to see our real estate pipeline resume on a higher trend line during 2025,” he said.
