Australia’s largest and most trusted healthy food group, SumoSalad, today unveiled a strategic restructure of the business designed to grow the number of stores nationally and significantly increase revenue and earnings over the next three years by implementing an omni-channel focused business model.
The restructure involves the liquidation of two leasing entities that were previously under voluntary administration, with the leases folded into a new legal entity that will hold the leases for existing and planned stores.
The business will continue its expansion into grocery, petrol and convenience store locations, while growing its premium format stores – known as Green Label – to cater to growing consumer demands.
At the same time, Sumo confirmed that it is in the process of raising up to $3 million in new equity capital to fund its next growth stage.
The Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Sumo, Luke Baylis, said the restructure process was in line with the strategic direction outlined by the company earlier this year, which is aimed at futureproofing the business by moving its stores away from traditional outlets and into more appropriate, customer-focused locations.
Mr Baylis said that as previously foreshadowed, the restructure would result in the closure of some stores in shopping centre food courts in NSW and Victoria, but this would have only a minimal impact on Sumo’s network of more than 92 stores.
New stores would be opened progressively in other locations, including airport terminals and other transport hubs, universities and colleges, and in partnership with the Caltex service station network.
“Our customers have been telling us that there are other, more suitable places for our stores than food courts – whether they are getting on plane, at university or getting lunch on a work day, consumers are demanding healthier food options,” he said.
“Sumo is focused on meeting these changing needs by making our food more convenient, and even better value.
“We currently serve some six million healthy meals a year, and we want to increase this to 25 million meals within the next three years, which is why we have recently opened new stores at The Foodary in Sydney and at the Virgin airport terminal in Melbourne.”
Mr Baylis said the restructure also involved targeting corporate partnerships and upgrading the company’s direct-to-consumers offerings, following the recent announcement of a partnership with Menulog to deliver Sumo’s healthy foods through the day directly to homes and workplaces.
“Our partnership with Menulog has been an outstanding success, confirming our plans to extend our customer reach beyond physical stores,” he added.
“We are working to fulfil our mission of making great tasting, nutritious food accessible, offering our time sensitive customers the option to eat healthy food.”