Sweetgreen Inc. co-founder Nathaniel Ru is leaving the struggling salad chain following a string of disappointing results and a precipitous decline in the company’s stock price.
Ru, who has served as chief brand officer and been with the company for 20 years, is planning to retire on Jan. 1, according to a statement. He will continue to serve on the board.
Sweetgreen’s share price has dropped nearly 80% since the start of 2025, while consumers have bristled at perceived high costs of the company’s food. Fast-casual chains have also broadly struggled in recent quarters. Operational stumbles, such as removing fries only months after they were introduced, have contributed to the market losing faith in Sweetgreen’s current management team.
Ru, who started the company alongside current Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Neman and Chief Concept Officer Nicolas Jammet, has overseen the company’s marketing and restaurant design. While Sweetgreen’s concept has been touted as innovative in the restaurant world, that creativity has sometimes hindered efficient operations.
The company has yet to turn a profit since going public in late 2021 and has amassed net losses totaling more than $500 million in the period. Despite this, the chain has continued to aggressively expand, with its store count growing 90% over the past four years.
The growth hasn’t led to better financial performance. Cava Group Inc., which sells Mediterranean-style bowls, has expanded more quickly than Sweetgreen while posting consistent quarterly profits.
Prioritizing branding and restaurant development has led to higher operating costs and hasn’t translated into increased foot traffic. Sales from existing restaurants has contracted three consecutive quarters, including a 9.4% drop most recently, the most since 2021. Analyst expect that trend to continue, and worsen, in the fourth period this year after the company warned weak traffic trends have continued.
In August, Neman said only one-third of locations were “consistently operating at or above standard,” while the remainder fell short on sourcing, cooking and uniformity.
This year, the company sold off its kitchen automation unit to Wonder Group Inc., generating $100 million in cash. That technology was supposed to help get restaurant unit economics under control and speed up service but was sacrificed to help shore up company finances. Sweetgreen will maintain a licensing agreement to use the tool.
In 2014, Ru told the business journal from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania that he and his partners started Sweetgreen with a single location in Washington DC. He said that the landlord initially hung up on him but eventually relented after months of pestering. He said the group came up with five business principles, including “win, win, win” and “keeping it real.”
In 2022, he told Marketing Brew that Sweetgreen seeks “intimacy at scale” as it expands while talking about the company’s collaborations with tennis player Naomi Osaka and NBA player Devin Booker.
