Dive Brief:
- Sweetgreen CMO Daniel Shlossman is leaving the salad chain for a chief growth and marketing officer position at Wonder, a restaurant delivery service, Wonder CEO and founder Marc Lore said in a LinkedIn post.
- Shlossman will depart on May 19, according to an 8-K filed by Sweetgreen. Nathaniel Ru, Sweetgreen’s co-founder and chief brand officer, will take over Shlossman’s responsibilities, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- In January, Wonder overhauled its business model and laid off employees. Previously, the company’s chefs cooked meals curbside inside food delivery vans. Now, Wonder prepares food in a commissary kitchen.
Dive Insight:
Shlossman’s hiring at the company coincides with a shift toward a more conventional kitchen delivery model, similar to CloudKitchens or Kitchen United’s operations. According to Business Insider, Wonder’s New York commissary kitchens are targeted at a “fast fine” segment.
Wonder began operating in December 2021, and soon raised $350 million in Series B funding. At the time, the delivery van model was something of a cross between a ghost kitchen and a food truck.
Wonder’s model pivot took place during a cutback in the ghost kitchen and delivery-only segments, when a number of companies shifted toward omnichannel or multi-channel models more similar to conventional restaurants.
Layoffs like those at Wonder were not confined to the restaurant tech sector. Sweetgreen itself laid off 5% of its support staff last summer in an effort to control costs.
Sweetgreen’s recent marketing efforts emphasized heartier meals as the chain sought to draw new diners. This effort culminated in a dispute with Chipotle over a chicken bowl Sweetgreen initially referred to as a Chipotle Chicken Burrito Bowl. After Chipotle filed suit, Sweetgreen altered the name. But Sweetgreen’s efforts to boost profitability resulted in the company trimming its losses in Q1 to $33.7 million, down from a $49.7 million loss in the same period in 2022.
Shlossman spent more than five years at Sweetgreen, according to his LinkedIn profile, and served as CMO from August 2022 onward.
