Picadeli reaches new heights with 250 salad bars across Finland

With the demand for healthy fast-food at an all-time high, Picadeli is celebrating a major milestone: over 250 salad bars now open in Finland. This achievement makes Picadeli the second largest fast-food chain in the country by number of outlets, surpassing most burger chains, pizza places, and sandwich shops. This year alone, Picadeli has added 50 new salad bars – more than one per week.

Picadeli – and their green bowls – have become a familiar sight in cities. Founded in 2009, the pioneering concept was introduced to Finland in 2013, quickly becoming a popular lunch option for health-conscious consumers seeking an affordable meal.

At the start of the pandemic, Picadeli was forced to close a large portion of its salad bars, but since then, the recovery has been swift and successful. In fact, this year Picadeli has expanded rapidly, launching over 50 new salad bars – averaging more than one opening per week.

"We have always been strong in the Helsinki region, but recently we've experienced great growth in other parts of Finland. Today, 150 of our salad bars are located outside Helsinki," says Kaisa Väistö-Nurminen, Deputy Country Manager at Picadeli Finland.

With 250 salad bars in Finland, Picadeli celebrates both an important milestone and the fact that it is the second-largest fast-food chain in terms of sales outlets.

"It's quite remarkable – the country's second largest fast-food chain doesn’t sell burgers or pizza, but fresh carrots, crisp spinach, and creamy mozzarella balls," says Kaisa Väistö-Nurminen.

Picadeli's expansion to over 250 locations marks a true health revolution. In fact, 41% of Finns eat salad 1-3 times a week, and the concept is a hit with people of all ages. The key to this success is understanding that healthy food needs to be accessible, delicious, and quick – otherwise, it gets overlooked. Each year, Picadeli rolls out new and exciting ingredients at their salad bars, and these carefully curated flavors are a big part of what keeps customers coming back.

AI – A Key Ingredient in the Salad
Although most people are familiar with the green bowls, few know that Picadeli is a Swedish company and a leader in foodtech development. The high-tech, algorithm-driven salad bars are a Swedish tech innovation.

What appears to be a simple salad bar is, in fact, a connected refrigerated counter, whose algorithms provide stores and Picadeli with the data needed to order precisely what customers want, nearly eliminating food waste. Picadeli's AI platform calculates order recommendations based on everything from planograms, current stock levels, and sales history to external factors such as weather forecasts.

Not only has Picadeli created a high-tech concept, but they are also part of the industry’s shift towards sustainability. A Picadeli salad has an average carbon footprint of 0.8 kilograms, which is nearly half of a standard European lunch, which emits 1.48 kilograms on average.

Picadeli is a part of the Swedish Greenfood Group, a leader in healthy food in Europe. The Picadeli concept has been launched in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Finland, and the US. Today, Picadeli sells over 50 million salads annually, and their salad bars are available in over 2,000 stores. In these strategically placed salad bars, more than one salad is picked every second, year-round.

Magnus Holtinger Wallin
Head of Communications
magnus.wallin@greenfood.se

About Greenfood
Greenfood is a leading European player creating healthy and sustainable food that is tasty, affordable, and easily accessible. From Picadeli’s self-service salads and ready-made meals to fruits and vegetables directly from farms spread across a large part of the world. Through our three business areas, Greenfood provides fresh, healthy, plant-based food at various stages of processing to customers in convenience and retail, as well as hotels, restaurants, and catering.

For 2023, Greenfood’s turnover amounted to SEK 5.7 billion and the Group operates in eight countries across Europe as well as in the US with headquarters in the historic heart of the business: Helsingborg, Sweden. Greenfood’s portfolio includes several strong brands, for example: Picadeli, Daily Greens, SallaCarte, Green Deli, and Ahlgood. Read more at www.greenfood.se.

Greenfood’s climate targets are approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, with a commitment to substantially reduce CO2 emissions.