Brothers Jackson and Jesse McGrath have spun their parent’s popular gourmet salad dressings into a fast food operation that is set to rake in $7.5 million this year.
The duo launched their healthy fast food chain Greenstreat back in 2018 and have stores in regional NSW and Victoria, as well as Brisbane, while they just opened their fourth location in Melbourne in December.
It all started 15 years ago when the McGrath’s parents were in the restaurant game and launched a range of gourmet salad dressings, glazings and condiments.
“It got quite a lot of traction in Albury where we grew up … and people just kept coming in to buy a container of salad dressing,” Mr Jackson told news.com.au.
It led to the brothers travelling to Brisbane to try out a few farmers’ markets and he said the reaction was “crazy”.
“The response we got from people who didn’t know the product was crazy – as soon as they tasted it they bought it,” he said.
They ended up travelling the east coast to sell their condiments at farmers’ markets but the brothers soon realised there was a bigger problem – that people didn’t have access to healthy food made quickly and there was no transparency on where their produce was coming from, Mr Jackson said.
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So they decided to bunker down in Albury for a year-and-a-half to create a menu for Greenstreat with a big focus on their hero products, which involved testing around 50 dressings.
“Some of them went off within a day and we found a lot of produce isn’t meant to be put in a bottle,” Mr Jackson said.
They ended up with 14 “unique” dressings that are made from scratch every single day in stores, said Mr Jackson, and launched their first outlet in Albury, NSW in 2018.
“I was out the front, Jesse was in the kitchen and we had a few staff members and we opened with a line 50 metres around the corner without any advertising, so we were chasing our tails for the first year,” Mr Jackson said.
But the duo quickly realised that offering 20 menu items, 14 dressings, acai bowls and coffees wasn’t sustainable and worked to reduce the menu.
Then they decided to take a “massive leap” and open in Brisbane, although the timing was less than ideal.
“It was in the middle of Covid, which was difficult for brand recognition and starting from scratch is quite hard so it was a difficult time. But fast forward, the line is probably 150m every single day,” he said.
“We know the product works and people are screaming out for healthy alternatives at a fast pace. We are on a mission to change the way Australia eats and to get them food that makes them the best version of themselves.”
One of their most popular items is the blackened chicken burger bowl, which includes warm brown rice, chopped cos, raw slaw, pickles, cheddar cheese, avocado and tortilla strips, and “walks out of stores”, according to Mr Jackson.
Although he said there is a noticeable difference between bestsellers in regional stores compared to the metro areas.
“The metro area seems to be more adventurous and they will go for the salad variety which might contain fruit or might be more plant-based and just alternatives to what you would normally get at a fast food restaurant or salad bar compared to regional areas where it’s burrito bowl orientated, so there is a bit of differentiation,” he said.
Another popular eat is Greenstreat’s version of a traditional caesar – offering a kale caesar salad which swaps out the bacon for parmesan crisps made with sesame seeds and spices, which are roasted in the oven.
“It’s got that umami flavour that bacon brings but it doesn’t have stigma of bacon so it’s a healthier option,” he said.
“It also has our roasted chicken, cherry tomatoes, fresh cos and is finished with our caesars ranch dressing.”
Another salad known as “The OG” has also been a big bestseller over the past four years. Mr Jackson said it’s “basic” with chopped cos, rocket, mixed leaf, warm roasted chicken, crispy bacon, cherry tomato, red onion, cheddar cheese and corn but is elevated with a sweet curry mango dressing.
His favourite is a summer staple called the “Noosa” salad that includes chicken, bacon, mango, coriander, cos and mixed leaf, which is topped with pine nuts and an almond, coconut and poppy seed dressing.
The 32-year-old puts Greenstreat’s $7.5 million success down to a “massive” increase in people looking for healthy options with the brothers aiming to make them more appealing and fulfilling.
“We are seeing people who typically wouldn’t get a salad starting to try them as they are not boring and they don’t have to be boring – they can be very satisfying,” he said.
“That’s our mission: To treat everyone to the freshest ingredients to feel their best and to make it satisfying and balanced. We don’t want people to walk away with salad and go to a fast food restaurant on their way home as they are not satisfied – the salads are there to sustain their lifestyle.”
But the hospitality operator hasn’t escaped the challenges of Covid that has battered the industry.
The Brisbane resident said Greenstreat was lucky to have an app that allowed for click and collect, while it also did delivery, and a focus on a healthier lifestyle while the virus raged also helped their bottom line – but it couldn’t avoid skyrocketing costs.
“The inflation [along] with the flooding and what’s happened in the world – that brought a bit of hardship because our main thing is lettuce and lettuce jumped up over 1000 per cent overnight,” he said.
“The sales didn’t drop but we had to get creative on the operational side … Staff shortages have also hurt.
“With the Brisbane store we definitely struggled because of a lack of international students, although we always had staff. But in regional areas we had no problems whatsoever. There was a big shift to regional that helped with finding staff.”
Opening up in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond this month was a dream for the brothers as they describe the Victorian city as the “food capital”.
There are plans to open three more stores in Melbourne in the next six months.
“We are ready to go and make a mark in the food scene in Australia,”Mr Jackson said.
One of the biggest changes to the brand in the last three months has been their introduction of their digital currency called Streat Cred.
“It’s more than a loyalty or point system and it will mean much more in the future … The way it works is any purchase on the app gets an x amount back as Streat Cred, so if you purchase a meal you get $1.50 of Streat Cred to use on future orders or to grow and spend it on merchandise or adding chicken to your salad or whatever you want,” he said.
“We have future big plans to push into other areas but right now what we are working on is showing some massive results. In the last three months, we have given out over $30,000 in Streat Cred and it’s been a well-received incentive.”
Greenstreat is also launching its own in-app delivery services slated to roll out mid-2023.
Long-term, Mr Jackson said the goal is to reach 100 Greenstreat stores in the next 10 years.
“That 100 stores mark is the magic number where we think we can make a mark in the Australian food industry and give healthy alternatives at a fast pace,” he said.
“It’s hard to live the mission with only three stores.”