SALAD BOX OVERVIEW Salad Box is a Romanian company started in 2012 in Cluj-Napoca by a couple of friends. Literally a start-up with an initial investment of 15.000 euros. The idea behind it was to offer healthy food at affordable prices and the concept was very simple - a salad bar with tens of different fresh vegetables, cheese, meat and dressings from which one could choose to create a personal salad box. The restaurants were placed in food courts, next to the international fast foods and offered a good alternative to the well known burgers and pizza. By the end of the rst year Salad Box had opened 12 restaurants in Romania. Using the tagline ”Food is life. Make it good”, Salad Box continued to expand in a franchise model, becoming the third largest fast-food chain in Romania, after McDonald’s and KFC. Understanding that the growing potential is not big enough in Romania (an estimate of 60-70 restaurants would have been the maximum number for the domestic market), in 2014 Salad Box went international. ”On selling products with an average price of 3.5 euros, in 2014, the Salad Box group recorded sales of 8.6 million euros, representing more than a 100% increase compared with 2013.” (1) In 2017 the total sales reached 26 million euros. (2) By 2019 the restaurants were present in 11 foreign countries - USA, UK, France, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Hungary and Algeria. CONTEXT In the 2010s the new wave of healthier food and healthier life was just entering Romania, in a shy way. People were starting to understand that maybe fast foods are not the right choice if you want to be healthy, but there were not many alternatives. The few farm to table restaurants were rather expensive and appreciated by only a small part of the public. Bio ingredients were hard to nd and unaffordable for the average Romanian income. In this climate Salad Box came with the concept of affordable good food. Not the best, not bio, but de nitely better for your health than McDonalds. MBA in Marketing fi Geopolitics of World Business fi fi Ana Alexandra Blidaru Ana Alexandra Blidaru COMPETITORS Where lies the success of Salad Box? In the correct evaluation of the market and of the target group. Salad Box is not the rst, nor the best salad restaurant in Romania. Nor is it the healthiest fast food available. Before and after the creation of Salad Box, many other local businesses tried to offer healthy food, but most of them closed because the market for natural healthy ingredients is not big enough in Romania. In comparison to other small businesses that used only premium ingredients bought from farmers, Salad Box started from the beginning thinking big, considering expansion and with a clear concept - affordable good food. Not the best. Their success lies in the ”good enough” balance. On their segment Salad Box does not have competitors in Romania. Another aspect that helped dominate the market was the francize system that assured a rapid expansion of restaurants throughout the country. In Romania out of the 43 restaurants, only 7 are owned by Salad Box, the other being franchises. DIFFERENT MARKETS One of the key aspects of Salad Box, the motivation behind creating this business, is the fresh ingredients. In their quest for constant quality and supply frequency, Salad Box had to look for partners outside Romania. In Romania there are no producers capable of delivering big quantities of controlled quality on time. In Romania, the initial investment for opening a Salad Box restaurant is smaller in comparison to the other markets, countries with more mature economies. The disadvantage is the work force, hard to nd and dif cult to maintain. The migration of employees in Romania is quite high. Young people without quali cations work for a short period of time and after acquiring experience they quit and look for a better salary in foreign countries. A lot of time and money is lost on the continuous training of new employees. Franchising is the fastest way to expand but it can also be very unpredictable. Most new restaurants are opened after nding the suitable partner in the respective country. But some of the international restaurants are also owned directly by Salad Box. Entering different markets means dealing with different cultures and economics and a lot of adapting. The rst restaurant opened outside Romania was in Budapest in 2013. Now there are 10 restaurants in Hungary. Next came Miami, as an investor wanted to open a franchise. Four months into it, they reached break even. fi fi fi fi fi fi Geopolitics of World Business MBA in Marketing Ana Alexandra Blidaru Algeria started as a test, to see how the restaurant is perceived in a different culture and how will the Algerian staff follow the operations and standards of the company. Being a small investment, the risk of failure was easy to assume. One year after the opening of the restaurant, the location ranked 20 on TripAdvisor (in the list of 291 restaurants in the country). Dubai, on the other hand, is a completely different market, needing an initial investment of 1,2 million euros, rent paid in advance for 1 year. (4) In different countries clients have different ingredients to choose from in creating their salad. The selection is adapted to the culture, the culinary choices of each country but also to the purchasing power. ”I can always put buffalo mozzarella in my recipe, but customers can't afford to buy it. Then there will be no volume, and if there is no volume, there will be no freshness. The menu is created based on the purchasing power because we need to have a healthy business not only in terms of product, but also in terms of numbers.” (4) In the last years Salad Box included daily soups and smoothies in the menu. In Romania the market share of those new items is quite small, but on an international level, there are restaurants where almost hals of total sales is represented by soups. THE PANDEMIC 2020 was a challenging year for all companies, especially those in the hospitality sector. With the lockdown in the spring of 2020, more people working from home and the uncertainties that followed, businesses had to adapt or die. Adapting meant for most of the businesses moving online as much as possible. Salab Box cut costs, started delivering salads and managed to survive despite the 40% decrease in sales. ”Throughout this period we have studied the habits of consumers in all countries trying to anticipate their needs in the new context. Food tastes and needs, even fast food, have changed in the pandemic. (…) We have already launched in ClujNapoca and in several restaurants in Bucharest a menu with hot, healthy and extremely nutritious dishes, with considerably larger portions. (...) In no more than two months, they will be available in every SaladBox in the world. (...) For the of ce area, we bought some new, special ovens and refrigerated display cases, connected to an application that presents the complete menu inside. They can also have hot and cold food, and can be opened with the application, and payment will be made online with the card. Everything just with the phone.In total, for the next 12 months, we have allocated 1 million euros for the extension under the new conditions.” (3) says Dan Isai, founder and CEO of Salad Box MBA in Marketing fi Geopolitics of World Business Ana Alexandra Blidaru RESOURCES (1) Anca Alexe, BR Guide: The simple steps to opening a Salad Box franchise, one of the most famous Romanian brands worldwide, Business Review, Published 26.10.2018, Accessed 23.01.2022 https://business-review.eu/business/br-guide-how-to-open-a-salad-box-franchise-188837 (2) Sergiu Voicu, SALAD BOX, afacerea pornită din Cluj și ajunsă pe trei continente, DIGI24, Published 16.06.2018, Accessed 23.01.2022 https://www.digi24.ro/special/campanii-digi24/romania-fast-forward/salad-box-afacerea-pornita-din-clujsi-ajunsa-pe-trei-continente-941267 (3) Ioana Erdei, Lecțiile unui antreprenor care a supraviețuit pandemiei. Dan Isai, Salad Box: Acest an a fost cel mai intens curs de educație nanciară, reziliență și adaptare! economedia.ro, Published 18.03.2021, Accessed 23.01.2022 https://economedia.ro/lectiile-unui-antreprenor-care-a-supravietuit-pandemiei-dan-isai-salad-box-acestan-a-fost-cel-mai-intens-curs-de-educatie- nanciara-rezilienta-si-adaptare.html#.Ye3eOhNBzYI (4) Cristina Beligăr, Lecție de business internaţional de la un tânăr de 31 de ani, Revista Sinteza, Published 04.12.2017, Accessed 23.01.2022 https://www.revistasinteza.ro/lectie-de-business-international-de-la-un-tanar-de-31-de-ani fi fi Geopolitics of World Business MBA in Marketing
