Sweetgreen acquires kitchen robot maker to make healthy fast food even better
One day you may order a salad at Sweetgreen, and it will roll down to you on a conveyor belt after a robot has prepared it. In August 2021, it was announced that the American fast-casual restaurant chain is buying Spyce, a startup that makes automated kitchens.
Sweetgreen said: "We are leading the movement to reimagine fast food for a new era. Our core values guide our actions, and we strive to give our customers, team members and partners the opportunity to play a positive role in the food system. That is why we are building a transparent supply chain, cooking from scratch and creating a community of people who believe in the power of real food."
Sweetgreen has already begun figuring out when and how to deploy Spyce's technology across more than 130 of the chain's locations, but the overall goal is to improve the quality and consistency of food as well as make operations more efficient. Everything is on track, as Sweetgreen employees will spend more time on food preparation and hospitality. The company aims to fill orders faster and offer healthier menu options beyond salads, warm bowls and side dishes.
“Spyce and Sweetgreen share a common goal. We created Sweetgreen to bring more people to real food and to build healthy fast food at scale for the next generation, and Spyce has developed modern technology that fits this vision perfectly. By joining forces with their best team, we can improve the experience of our team members, provide more consistent interactions with customers and bring real food to more communities”
Spyce, which was founded by several MIT graduates, operates quick-service restaurants in Boston. Employees add prepared ingredients to refrigerated containers in robotic kitchens.
The Boston Globe notes that the system is designed to produce consistent orders using a combination of measurements, timing and methods. Infinite Kitchen can cook food using a double-sided griddle and steamed noodles, pasta and grains before placing everything into bowls that move through the kitchen on a conveyor belt.
The main reasons for acquiring Spyce are:
- People. Sweetgreen team members will be able to focus more on food preparation and hospitality while working with the latest technology. The company plans to invest more in training and development to help team members. Interested employees will be able to develop technical skills to operate and maintain Spyce's technology.
- Customers. Faster and more consistent orders will make customer service even more convenient and strengthen Sweetgreen's position as a forward-thinking fast-casual restaurant. The chain will be able to further improve its menu of healthy dishes beyond warm bowls, salads and side dishes, while keeping the same convenience customers love.
- Food. The further mission is to provide nutritious, real food to as many people and communities as possible, with a company that has contributed to the future of food.
“As an operator in the healthy, fast everyday space, Sweetgreen has long been a brand we admire most. We are very happy to join another inspiring company and work together to pave the way to the future of this industry”
Founded in 2007, Sweetgreen sincerely believes that real food should be convenient and accessible to everyone. Every day at the company's more than 130 restaurants, more than 4,300 people cook from scratch using fresh ingredients and products delivered early in the morning. The company's strong food spirit and investment in local communities have allowed the restaurant chain to grow into a national brand with a mission to build healthier communities by providing customers with real food.
Boston-based restaurant company Spyce offers a fresh approach to vegetarian warm bowls and salads, made to order and personalized for each customer. The company believes that world-class chefs, such as Daniel Boulud, should also become investors and advisors.
By combining its culinary vision and innovative approach, Spyce created Infinite Kitchen, an advanced automated cooking tool designed to balance the core elements of cooking technique, measurement and timing to fully bring out each ingredient. By automating the preparation of fresh food, Spyce can source incredible ingredients, deliver a seamless experience for its guests and create attractive, technologically advanced jobs for its employees.
Spyce's founders said: "When we started working on Spyce in 2015, we had the idea that we could use automation to make healthy food more accessible. We knew that running a restaurant that offers fresh products and cooks from scratch is much harder than running a typical fast-food restaurant. And we realized that for healthy food to be as accessible and ubiquitous as McDonald's, we needed to completely rethink the fast-food model. So we set about prototyping, cooking and building in a basement at MIT. Six and a half years later, we have developed this new model with two amazing restaurants, but we are only just beginning our journey to scale healthy fast food!".
