The Salad Project: Redefining Fast-Casual Dining with Quality and Scale

A Concept Built on a Clear Ambition

The Salad Project was born in London's Spitalfields in 2021 with a straightforward goal: to build the best salad bar in the world. Founded by Florian de Chezelles and James Dare, the brand set out to prove that fast-casual food could be held to a genuinely higher standard - not just in terms of ingredients, but in culinary craft, operational execution, and the overall experience of eating well quickly.

Five years on, that ambition has translated into 15 locations across London and a first international site in Paris, opening in September 2026. The growth has been deliberate and quality-led: The Salad Project has not expanded at the expense of the standard that earned it its reputation. Each location reflects the same open kitchen format, the same commitment to fresh premium ingredients, and the same belief that a great salad bar should be somewhere people actively want to return to.

With strong investor backing from figures including Deliveroo founder Will Shu, and a growing presence in high-footfall environments ranging from neighbourhood sites to London Bridge Station, The Salad Project is now at a stage of its development where international franchise expansion is both appropriate and well-supported.

What Sets the Brand Apart

In a fast-casual market crowded with concepts competing on speed and convenience, The Salad Project competes on something more durable: genuine quality. The menu centres on customisable salads and bowls prepared to order in open kitchens, using produce sourced with real care. The result is food that tastes like it was made by people who care what they are putting out - because it is.

The operational model is designed for high-volume urban environments. Efficient service lines allow for quick throughput without compromising on the quality of what is assembled. Select locations offer dine-in alongside the core to-go proposition, broadening the brand's appeal and daypart flexibility. The SPAPP+ loyalty programme and Matcha Bar additions further differentiate the offer and drive the repeat-visit behaviour that underpins strong unit economics.

This is not a brand that has succeeded through novelty. It has succeeded by being consistently better at what it does than the alternatives available to London's lunch crowd - and that kind of earned loyalty is exactly what travels well in international markets.

Proven Growth and Expansion Plans

The Salad Project's trajectory tells a clear story. From a single Spitalfields site in 2021, the brand has grown to 15 London locations by mid-2026, with a target of 20 sites by mid-2027. The addition of a Paris site this autumn marks the brand's first step beyond the UK, and its first proof point as an international concept.

The decision to target the GCC for franchise expansion reflects a clear-eyed read of the market opportunity. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait all feature the dense urban populations, high-footfall retail and hospitality environments, and health-conscious consumer segments that The Salad Project is built to serve. The brand's format - scalable, operationally disciplined, and anchored in a category with strong secular growth trends - is well suited to the region's franchise infrastructure.

The brand's first travel hub location at London Bridge Station is a particularly instructive data point for prospective partners: it demonstrates that The Salad Project can perform in the kind of high-throughput, transit-adjacent environments that are a feature of major GCC cities as well as London.

Franchise Support: A System Built for Consistency

The Salad Project's franchise model is designed to protect and replicate the quality that has built the brand's reputation. Franchise support covers the full operational lifecycle, from site selection through to ongoing brand development.

Site selection and design support delivers turnkey layouts optimised for urban and travel hub locations, drawing on the brand's experience opening across a range of London footprints and formats. Training programmes for front-of-house and back-of-house teams are designed to ensure consistency in food quality and service standards before any new location opens. Franchisees then benefit from ongoing operational reviews, localised marketing support, and access to digital tools including the SPAPP+ loyalty platform, which has already demonstrated its ability to drive repeat visits and customer engagement in the UK market.

The brand's marketing approach is built around the quality of the product itself, with editorial content, social media, and loyalty programming working together to reinforce the message that The Salad Project is the best version of what a salad bar can be.

The Ideal Franchise Partner

The Salad Project is explicit about what it is looking for in a franchise partner, and that clarity is itself a signal of a brand that knows what it is and what it needs to protect. The right partner shares the brand's standards before they share its name.

The brand is seeking operators who are genuinely excited by what The Salad Project stands for - not simply by the opportunity it represents. That distinction matters, because delivering a consistently excellent fast-casual experience requires day-to-day commitment to operational detail that goes beyond initial enthusiasm for the concept. The ideal partner is hands-on, brand-aligned, and fully committed to delivering the experience customers expect at every site.

In practical terms, The Salad Project is looking for partners who bring:

• Experience in hospitality or F&B with a demonstrated track record in operations
• Financial strength and the capital to support multi-unit development
• Access to prime real estate in high-footfall urban locations
• A hands-on approach and a genuine commitment to brand standards at site level

Whether that partner is an established hospitality group, an experienced F&B operator, or an entrepreneur ready to build something serious, what matters most is the alignment of values and the capability to deliver. Quality and consistency are non-negotiable at every site, and the ideal partner understands that this is the foundation the brand's reputation has been built on.

Why The Salad Project Works

The fast-casual salad category has long underperformed its potential in international markets. Most concepts in the space have competed on price, speed, or novelty rather than on the intrinsic quality of what they serve. The Salad Project was founded precisely to address that gap, and five years of growth in one of the world's most competitive food markets has validated the approach.

The brand's positioning is premium but accessible - a combination that is commercially powerful in markets where health-conscious dining is increasingly mainstream and consumers are willing to pay for quality they can trust. The operational model is proven in high-volume environments. The loyalty and repeat-visit metrics are strong. And the founding team's ambition - to be the best salad bar in the world - provides a clear and durable north star for every decision the brand makes.

For franchise investors, this is a brand at an early and advantageous stage of its international expansion, with a domestic track record that removes most of the uncertainty typically associated with emerging franchise concepts.

Conclusion

The Salad Project is a rare franchise proposition: a concept with genuine culinary credibility, a proven and scalable operational model, and a clear ambition that has already been translated into meaningful commercial success. For partners seeking a premium fast-casual brand with strong growth momentum and a category-defining offer, The Salad Project represents one of the more compelling opportunities currently available in the GCC franchise market.

For franchise enquiries, contact Gulf Franchise Group directly.