Sweetgreen hires Ryan Slemons to sharpen store growth strategy

A new development chief at Sweetgreen can change the line as much as the logo. Ryan Slemons, who took the role effective May 4, was brought in to oversee real estate, design, construction, facilities and portfolio management, the kinds of decisions that determine whether a store feels cramped, fast and order-heavy or built for smoother service.

Sweetgreen said Slemons reports directly to co-founder and CEO Jonathan Neman. The company is betting on a leader with a deep background in rollout work, including time as chief development officer at Unleashed Brands and prior experience at Amazon and Starbucks. Unleashed Brands said in 2023 that Slemons had more than 10 years at those two companies and had worked on Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go and Amazon Style. That matters on the restaurant floor because development hires shape where the serving line sits, how much back-of-house room crews get and how much pressure lands on staff when digital orders, in-person diners and pickup shelves all collide.

The hire comes as Sweetgreen is trying to steady its growth story. In the first quarter of 2026, the company said revenue fell 2.9% from a year earlier to $161.5 million, same-store sales dropped 12.8% and it opened 4 net new restaurants. Sweetgreen said it entered 2026 focused on its Sweet Growth Transformation Plan, and Neman has said the company is trying to build a more consistent guest experience and improve execution across restaurants.

The chain is still expanding. As of Dec. 28, 2025, Sweetgreen operated 281 restaurants in 24 states and Washington, D.C., after opening 35 net new restaurants in fiscal 2025. The company has publicly discussed a goal of 1,000 domestic restaurants, a scale that would put far more weight on how every new site is designed and staffed. For hourly workers, that usually means less room for improvisation and more pressure to hit the same speed and service standards in every market.

Slemons also arrives as Sweetgreen broadens what each restaurant has to handle. On May 6, the company launched wraps nationwide after testing them in New York, the Midwest and Los Angeles. A wider menu can mean different equipment, tighter prep timing and more strain on teams already balancing bowls, salads and digital tickets. Sweetgreen’s development choices will also affect how the company handles automation, including its Infinite Kitchen model, which analysts say could see retrofit activity accelerate in 2026 and 2027.

The job is bigger than site selection. It is about whether Sweetgreen builds stores that can absorb higher volume without burning out crews, or whether growth outruns the people working the line.