London-based salad concept Urban Greens will open two of its next three sites in the capital’s financial district, encouraged by the return of City workers.
The Times reports that office occupation data, as well as word of mouth reports from City colleagues, has given the salad bar chain confidence to invest.
Co-founder Rushil Ramjee pointed to the decision by asset manager BlackRock to move its staff to four days in the office, with other financial services firms following suit.
“We think concentrating there is a smart move,” he told The Times. “We do a lot of data analysis and can see that the two-day [pattern in the office] has gone to three, and for some it has gone to four.
“It has resulted in very, very strong sales on the days that people are in — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — with Mondays also back. Canary Wharf also gives us very good data and it is really busy.”
Ramjee, along with co-founders Houman Ashrafzadeh and Yannis Drivas, set up Urban Greens in 2019.
The business has an annual turnover of £4.5-5m and now operates sites in Victoria, St Paul’s, Canary Wharf, and Kensington, with a fifth site due to open in the City within the next three months.
“Our next milestone is to reach £10 million revenue and I think we will get there, on a [monthly] run rate basis, by the end of this year,” Ashrafzadeh said. “Our first two years were not profitable. In 2023 we were on top of our operations and we turned a healthy profit.
“Our ebitda margins [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] are around 15 to 16 per cent. This year we are expecting to improve those numbers. Now we have scale and we are buying tonnes of greens on a weekly basis, the buying power is different, even though there has been inflation.”
Speaking to MCA last year, Ramjee and Ashrafzadeh said Urban Greens will look to other cities once it solidifies its presence in the capital. It also has a B2B offer, while “the vision from the beginning was to get into retail,” Ashrafzadeh added.
