Just Salad Has Completed a Capital Raise Led by Wellington Management, Valuing the Company at 1 Billion Dollars.
NEW YORK, Feb. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Just Salad, the fast-casual restaurant chain with a mission to make everyday health and sustainability possible, announced today it has raised $200M in capital from an investor group led by Wellington Management, alongside D1 Capital Partners, Neuberger Berman, and Stripes. The capital raise values the company at approximately $1 billion. Proceeds of the transaction will be used to support new unit growth as well as continued investment in menu innovation, advanced technology initiatives and customer experience.
“The quick-service food industry is in the early days of disruption, and the average consumer desperately wants healthy, craveable, convenient and accessible options; no one does that better than Just Salad,” said Nick Kenner, Founder & CEO of Just Salad. “We are proud to partner with world-class investors like Wellington, D1, Neuberger Berman, and Stripes to propel our next phase of growth. We have a tremendous runway to build Just Salad into a leading national restaurant brand, and this investment demonstrates the confidence in that opportunity and our team’s ability to achieve that goal.”
Just Salad opened in New York City in 2006 to meet the demand for those in Midtown wanting fast, healthy, and sustainable offerings. Since then, Just Salad has successfully expanded its menu to include salads, wraps, warm bowls, soups and smoothies, all prepared with homemade dressings, prepped-daily produce, from-scratch recipes and fresh, flavorful ingredients. Proteins are marinated overnight and cooked fresh in the restaurant throughout the entire day.
Just Salad operates nearly 100 locations across urban and residential markets in New York, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Just Salad’s intense focus on the customer experience and disciplined real estate selection process have driven best-in-class unit economics and industry-leading same store sales growth supported by increased traffic, all leading to dramatic revenue growth and strong profitability at both the store and enterprise-level.
Just Salad is a Certified B Corporation, committed to meeting high standards for social and environmental performance. As the home to the longest-running reusable bowl program in the U.S. restaurant industry, Just Salad prevents approximately 43,000lbs of single-use packaging waste each year. Since 2021, the company has saved over 160,000 meals from landfills and avoided more than 430,000 kg of CO2e through its partnership with Too Good to Go. See Just Salad’s Impact Report for more details on the company’s sustainability initiatives.
“We’re excited to invest in Nick and the Just Salad team,” said Michael Carmen, Co-Head of Private Investments at Wellington Management. “Just Salad offers consumers a great product at an attractive price and stands out from other restaurant companies with its strong brand and impressive same-store sales growth. This growth is outpacing others in the fast-casual category and is being driven by increased consumer traffic during the past year.”
Wellington Management, D1 Capital Partners, Neuberger Berman (on behalf of client funds), and Stripes are leading investors across both private and public markets with significant experience in the consumer & retail sector and investments in some of the more well-known growth businesses in the U.S. This investment has been carefully timed at a critical inflection point of growth. Just Salad will leverage the expertise and support from its new investor base to accelerate its expansion and prepare for its next phase of growth.
BofA Securities acted as exclusive placement agent to Just Salad on the transaction and Latham & Watkins provided legal counsel.
ABOUT JUST SALAD
Just Salad is a fast-casual restaurant chain with a mission to make everyday health and sustainability possible. The brand serves craveable, accessible, plant-centric meals made with homemade dressings, prepped-daily produce, from-scratch recipes and fresh, flavorful ingredients. Guests can choose from over 15 chef-designed salads, wraps, warm bowls, soups and smoothies, including classic offerings and rotating seasonal favorites. Empowering customers to “Eat with Purpose,” Just Salad is a Certified B Corporation™ and home to the world’s largest restaurant reusable program, as well as the first U.S. restaurant chain to carbon label its menu and offer a Climatarian menu category. The company was founded in 2006 and has over 90 locations across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
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SOURCE Just Salad
