Dive Brief:

• Salad chain Sweetgreen appointed Chipotle Chief Accounting Officer Jamie McConnell to the role of CFO effective Sept. 22, according to a Thursday press release and securities filing. McConnell will succeed Mitch Reback, who will be retiring after a decade as the salad chain’s finance chief.
• Reback, who has served as the Los Angeles-based chain’s CFO since 2015, will remain with the company in an advisory role for six months after stepping down from the seat on Sept. 21, according to the Thursday press release.
• “We want to thank Mitch for all of his work at Sweetgreen over the last decade. We wish him nothing but the best in his retirement and thank him for his support in the transition,” a company spokesperson told CFO Dive via email. “We look forward to all the wonderful contributions Jamie will bring to the company, as she steps in as CFO, helping us scale our mission and vision for redefining the future of fast food.”

Dive Insight:

Over his decade as finance chief, Reback helped to expand the salad chain from “just a handful of locations,” and “built the company’s financial infrastructure from the ground up, implementing critical systems, controls, and processes,” the company said in the press release. He also “played a central role” during Sweetgreen’s initial public offering in 2021, according to the company.  

Reback will remain with the company to help assist with a smooth CFO transition immediately following his retirement, and will receive a payment of $7,500 a month for his services during that six-month consulting period, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

McConnell will succeed Reback in the role after a seven-year tenure at restaurant chain Chipotle. Her previous experiences also include serving as assistant controller for Rent-A-Center, and she also logged a six-year span at Big Four firm Deloitte, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In accordance with her appointment as Sweetgreen’s finance chief, McConnell will receive an annual base salary of $550,000, and will also be eligible for an annual discretionary bonus with a target amount equal to 75% of her base, according to the company filing. She will also receive a new hire equity award comprised of an award of 150,000 shares of restricted stock units, as well as the option to purchase 300,000 shares of common stock, according to the filing.

The CFO appointment is the latest executive leadership swap for the company, following just shortly after Sweetgreen appointed Taco Bell and Pizza Hut alum Zipporah Allen to the role of chief commercial officer, effective Sept. 2, according to a company press release. In May, Sweetgreen appointed Jason Cochran — who most recently served as CEO and a board member for American West Restaurant Group, the third-largest franchisee of Pizza Hut — as its chief operating officer.

The three executive appointments come as the company seeks to bolster its financial results in the face of ongoing economic headwinds and a shift in consumer sentiment, executives said during its Q2 earnings call on Aug. 7. Such steps include cutting 10% of its open and existing roles, as well as restructuring part of its team, Reback said during the quarterly earnings call.

For its second quarter ended June 29, Sweetgreen reported total revenue of $185.6 million, a 0.5% increase year-over-year, according its earnings results. Same-store sales slumped by 7.6%, while the company — which has largely remained unprofitable despite a large cult following — reported a net loss of approximately $23.1 million for the quarter compared to a net loss of $14.7 million reported in the prior year period.

“Let me be clear, we are not satisfied with the results we're reporting today,” Sweetgreen CEO and co-founder Jonathan Neman said during the Q2 earnings call. The chain’s results “reflect the convergence of several external headwinds and internal actions,” he said, including a more cautious consumer environment as well as internal headwinds relating to its loyalty program.

On the Aug. 7 call, Reback attributed the net loss during the quarter primarily to a $6.4 million decrease in its restaurant level profit, as well as a $5.3 million impairment from five underperforming restaurants, including the closure of two restaurants and three others it is continuing to operate, he said.

The company is also taking several steps to increase same-store sales in the face of declining customer traffic, particularly in core urban markets, executives said during the call. Sweetgreen took steps such as closing some “smaller footprint” locations in areas like New York City and redirecting customer volume to larger locations nearby, Reback said. In full-year 2025, Sweetgreen expects to open at least 40 new restaurants in four new markets, including the state of Arkansas and the cities of Sacramento, California; Phoenix; and Cincinnati, he said.

For its full-year, Sweetgreen is expecting revenue between $700 million and $715 million and a dip in same-store sales between 6% to 4%, according to its earnings results.