5 Who Thrive: Aloha Salads grows by staying true to its mission - Portland Business Journal:

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The signature salad dressings are amonhg the reasons forthe company’s success. Aloha Salads continues to despite theweak economy, and is expectes to gross more than $1 milliob this year. A third location is set to open in Juneat , followecd by another in the by There are plans to franchise Alohaa Salads nationally. And a California food group has agreed to bottle four of the six salad dressingds forretail distribution. The Lufranos’ success is due to a numbeer of factors. They open stores only in high-profile locations and form businesds partnerships withtrusted people. They also sticmk to their core mission, which is to served quick, healthy foods using local ingredients.
Now theirr goal is to expand strategicallyg in anticipation ofthe economy’s rebound in 2010. “Ws have to continue reinventing ourselvees to keep things fresh for customers and attract new as well,” Chris “We’re not going to rush in. We’re goingb to make sure we make the righty decisionsmoving forward.” Careful growth has been the company’sd philosophy from the In December 2004, aftetr seven years away from the Lufranos returned to Hawaii from Chicago, where she was a patenty lawyer and he worked in finance.
For more than a they scouted potential store locations on Oahu and experimented with recipezat Sara’s parents’ home in Kahala. The coupler opened their first Aloha Salad in May 2006 ina 440-square-foot space in the , usingf personal capital and a $50,000 loan guaranteerd by the U.S. Small Business The company’s creative salads — “Aloha “Maui Mozzarella” and “The Goddess” instantly drew loyal customers. One customer was local contractorFreddie Franco, owner of BEK whose building credits include Waikiki DFS Neiman Marcus and Tony Auto-plex.
He struck up a friendship with the Lufranos and two yearsz later helped design Aloha second locationin . The mall which opened in March 2008, briefly experiencerd a double-digit drop in sales after health-food chain Wholde Foods opened nearby late last Sales have climbed sincde then but are slightlybeloww target, Chris said. Franco, now an equal partnee in the company, provideds the capital to build the Kapolei location set to opennext “Kapolei should be really good because there’x nothing out there,” he said. “We’ve been getting lots of callds askingwhen we’re going to build in theire area.
” The 1,200-square-foot store is uniqued in that it will have wine pairings with saladxs and a mezzanine levek for dine-in customers, Franco said. As Aloha Salads continuews to expand, the ability to quicklu change menu items to fit tastes willbe important. For instance, roast beef sandwiches that did not sell well in the Kailuwa store have been replaced withpastramui sandwiches. Periodically introducing creative menu itemse also is crucial to This month, the Kahalq Mall location began serving “design-your-own” organic coffees, fruit bowls and fresh-squeezes juices. The response has been overwhelming, and there are plans to servd breakfast inother locations.
“We really care about the food that goes out to Sara said. “People get used to what they’rs eating and don’t realize there could be so manygood