Houston Business Journal - A Different Kind of Chop Shop: Salata
A different kind of chop shop: Salata
Houston Business Journal
by Michelle Hillen – Special to Houston Business Journal
From left: Tony Kyoumjian and Berge Simonian of Salata: Decision to hire professional consultants has been a major factor in company's growth.
When Berge Simonian opened his first restaurant in Houston’s downtown tunnel system, he may have been too innovative for his own good.
It was 1988 and he was selling hot-pressed sandwiches, but his customers didn’t quite know what to make of the grilled concoctions.
“It was basically a Panini,” Simonian recalls. “I was maybe ahead of my time.”
His second restaurant fared better, but with a hot entrée line and a separate salad line, it didn’t have a specific niche.
Now, on his third restaurant concept — Salata — Simonian has scaled back the offerings to focus on salads and wraps. With revenue that has increased from $100,000 its first year to nearly $3.5 million in 2009, and eight locations in Houston and Dallas, Simonian figures he finally has a winner.
“It feels like our concept is right for the time,” he says.
Salata, which opened in 2005, is Simonian’s simplest restaurant concept yet — basically an upgraded salad bar with salads made according to customers’ specifications.
While customers travel through the salad line, they choose from nearly 50 vegetables and other salad toppings, including cheeses, seeds and nuts for an all-inclusive price, which includes sales tax. Meat can be added for an additional cost. The salads are tossed and topped off with one of nine house salad dressings made using only fresh ingredients and no artificial flavors or preservatives.
“It’s fresh and consistent day-in and day-out, and year-in and year-out,” says Simonian, president and owner of the Salata concept. “There is a limited number of choices, but we have a good variety.”
The concept for Salata evolved over time as Simonian went through the process of trial and error with his other restaurants. A brisk business at the salad bar at his second restaurant gave him the idea.
“As people started to eat more healthy, the salad line got bigger,” he says. “My goal was just to expand the salad tossing section and do it better than anyone else. It was a unique niche.”
After having struck out on his own with his first few restaurants, Simonian decided this time he would hire professional consultants to help make his idea a success.
A willingness to hire experienced professionals to lend their expertise to various aspects of the business has been a major factor in the company’s growth, he says.
The first collaboration with consultants came in 2003 during the conceptualization and research phase. At that time, Simonian and his business partner, Tony Kyoumijan, hired a professional chef to develop two basic recipes for the salad dressings.
They also hired Houston-based A’La Carte Foodservice Consulting Group, to help develop a growth and franchise plan, says Chris Tripoli, A’La Carte president.
“Our growth plan for them was to grow as quickly as they could continue to operate well,” Tripoli says. “What that meant was we knew he could get from two or three stores to up to five or 10 units very quickly.”
In late 2005, the first Salata location opened in Houston’s downtown tunnels at 919 Milam. Business was slow at first, but Simonian listened to customer feedback and made changes.
“It took about a year for people to realize what Salata was, and to start appreciating it,” he says.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
When the business became profitable, Simonian sold his first franchisee to his brother, who opened a second location downtown in Houston Center. Shortly afterward, a cousin came to visit and liked the concept so much he decided he wanted to open one in Dallas.
“We had no intention of doing that,” Simonian says. “My goal was to expand in the Houston market. Then my cousin came to visit from Dallas and fell in love with it.”
The Dallas location was the first suburban location. The move to the suburbs came with different challenges than the previous locations, which operated primarily in food courts, he says.
In addition to accounting for more seating and more space, Simonian soon realized the company would have to venture more into marketing and advertising — something that hadn’t been necessary in the food-court environment.
“Here (in the food court), the audience is captive, so our advertising and marketing dollars were zero,” he says. “Over there (in Dallas) we found out that we had to do marketing and advertising, so we hired a marketing firm to help us get to that.”
With the success in the Dallas suburban market, Simonian and his partner then decided to try the Houston suburbs.
The company opened a location off Interstate 10 near the energy corridor, and a second suburban Houston location near Vintage Park Boulevard and State Highway 249.
“Our No. 1 criteria is we have to be in a high day-time population, so the energy corridor was a no brainer,” he says.
In total, there are six Salata locations in Houston and two in Dallas. The company is working on site plans for its ninth location near the Texas Medical Center, Simonian says.
As the company continues to expand, Simonian is now working with another consultant — Interdirect USA — to help determine good locations for new restaurants. Interdirect has created a site model to test new locations.
“Based on the site model that we have created, they tell us ‘yes, we should be there, or no, we shouldn’t be there’,” Simonian says. “We can also get sales forecasting — how much we can anticipate doing there.”
The company’s immediate goal is to continue expanding in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth and move onto other Texas markets. Eventually, Simonian says he hopes to take Salata national.
Restaurant consultant Tripoli says Salata is very competitive within the fastest-growing niche in restaurants — fast casual dining, pointing to national examples such as Panera Bread.
“We think he can successfully saturate the Houston and Dallas markets and grow into other markets as well,” Tripoli says. “People see great value in being able to order and customize their food, but do it without the traditional restaurant atmosphere with hostesses and servers to tip.”
The only limitation in terms of growth is having the space to make enough salad dressing to serve all of the stores. But with a centralized kitchen in the company’s headquarters that can support between 35 and 40 stores, Salata has plenty of room to grow, Simonian predicts.
“The challenge right now is finding qualified franchisees,” he says. “There is plenty of real estate right now and plenty of inventory to choose from with these economic times, and we are not afraid of growing.”
Salata
BUSINESS: Casual dining restaurant
YEAR FOUNDED: 2005
TOP EXECUTIVE: Berge Simonian, president and owner.
EMPLOYEES: 80
2008 REVENUE: $2 million
2009 REVENUE: $3.5 million
Web site: www.salata.biz
MICHELLE HILLEN is a Houston-based freelance writer.
