Garden Fresh Brand Revitalization Results in Sales Success
Introduces in-store brand ambassadors, Farm Teams
Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., parent company for Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation restaurants, announces its best month of sales in more than six years. For the month of January, same store sales increased chain-wide by 5.5 percent which includes a strong 8 percent increase in the refreshed restaurants located in southern California. The restaurants are also seeing a rise in overall customer satisfaction. In January, Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation restaurants achieved the highest ever company-wide score with 74 percent of guests completely satisfied.
Garden Fresh is in the midst of refreshing its restaurants and revitalizing its brand, encouraging its customers to “Discover Fresh,” a campaign focused on the restaurants’ dedication to its farm-to-table food. Within hours of harvest, fresh produce is on its way to the kitchens where prep cooks hand-chop the fruits and vegetables to use in made-from-scratch dishes or to stock the salad bar.
“We are really focused on our guests, telling them our farm-to-kitchen story because consumers want to know where their food is coming from,” said John Morberg, CEO of Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. “We have been focused on farm-fresh food for decades, and authentically telling that story provides our guests with valuable insights so they can rest-assured our food is always of the highest-quality.”
As part of the brand awareness strategy, Garden Fresh will be testing Farm Teams in the San Diego market. The Farm Teams are brand ambassadors who will interact with guests, speaking about Garden Fresh’s relationships with its farmers, where the food is coming from, as well as promoting Club Veg. Initially, there will be two teams, and they will rotate through the San Diego locations.
“It’s important we are transparent with our guests, and we want the Farm Teams to be able to answer any questions they might have, as well as improve the guest experience while inside our restaurants,” said Julie Derry, Chief Marketing Officer for Garden Fresh. “After an initial eight week test, we’ll be looking to expand these teams in all of our markets, familiarizing our customers everywhere with our dedication to fresh and wholesome food.”
