How The Salad Project Built a £10M Healthy Food Brand w/ Clem Hexby || GTG S07 E05

What does it really take to turn something as simple as a salad into a multi-million pound food brand? In an industry where restaurants fail fast, margins are tight, and scaling operations can quickly become chaos, building a successful food business requires far more than just good recipes.In this episode of Getting to Grow, Zoe Fox sits down with Clem Haxby, the culinary director behind The Salad Project, to explore how a single London salad bar evolved into one of the city’s most recognisable healthy food brands. From launching their first location in Spitalfields to scaling to 12 stores in just a few years, Clem shares the operational, creative, and strategic thinking behind building a fast-growing hospitality brand.This conversation goes beyond the idea of “healthy food trends” and into the real mechanics of scaling a restaurant concept. From designing menus based on intuition rather than market research, to building systems that allow stores to open smoothly, this episode explores how product obsession, operational discipline, and adaptability combine to create sustainable growth.Clem opens up about:• Designing the entire Salad Project menu from the ground up• Scaling from 2 stores to 12 locations in just three years• Why intuition often beats traditional market research• The operational systems that make restaurant expansion possible• Lessons learned from hiring mistakes and early operational chaos• The reality of opening restaurants that cost over £500K per site• Building a menu that keeps customers full, energised, and coming back• How balancing creativity and operations drives long-term brand successIf you’re a founder, operator, or entrepreneur interested in hospitality, consumer brands, or product-driven businesses, this episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at how a simple idea can evolve into a thriving brand when execution meets vision.Zoe Fox (Host):https://www.instagram.com/gettingtogrow/https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-fox-377033b0/The Salad Project:https://www.instagram.com/the.salad.project/https://www.saladproject.co.uk/Clem Hexby:https://www.instagram.com/clementines_kitchen/