California-based fast casual salad chain Sweetgreen plans to automate all its new restaurants in the next five years with its Infinite Kitchen robotic makeline.

Restaurant Dive reported that Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman told investors at William Blair’s Growth Stock Conference.

It also plans to deploy automation across all its current restaurants eventually.

The Spoon reported that Sweetgreen launched its Infinite Kitchen robotic makeline in Naperville, Illinois, in May this year, and the early results have been positive.

The second restaurant unit with the Infinite Kitchen is scheduled to open later this year.

This plan comes as restaurants, equipment manufacturers and software firms are working to increase labour productivity.

At the conference, Neman said that although the company will eventually equip every restaurant with an Infinite Kitchen, it is focusing on new builds in the near future.

Neman said: “The focus for us will be much more on new restaurants just because of the capital-intensive nature of retrofitting floors.

“We will test a retrofit soon to understand what that does. But one of the advantages Sweetgreen has is that most of our growth is in front of us, not behind us.”

As the preparation or the final assembly of the salads are not automated by Infinite Kitchen, the beginning and end of the production process are handled by restaurant employees.

The robotic machines dispense salad ingredients into a bowl before moving it along to the restaurant staff who add final toppings.

Sweetgreen has also said it intends to continue focussing on opening restaurants in suburban areas.

Neman said: “Today, our suburban stores have actually, from an average unit volume (AUV) perspective, slightly exceeded our urban stores.

“Over 50% of the stores are suburban and most of the pipeline going forward is also suburban.”

The company has more than 200 restaurants, 40 of which are in New York and 36 of which are in California.