(Bloomberg) -- Sweetgreen Inc. appointed Starbucks Corp. veteran Rossann Williams as the company’s chief operating officer as the salad chain seeks to ramp up its growth.

Williams starts on Feb. 5 and will oversee operations, real estate and development, and supply chains, Sweetgreen said in a statement Friday.

Sweetgreen, which currently doesn’t have a COO, plans to open as many as 28 restaurants this year before accelerating that pace in 2025. It’s also trying to meet a profitability goal — a task that investors are watching closely. The salad chain’s stock currently trades at just over $11, less than half the $28 the Los Angeles-based company priced its shares at in a 2021 initial public offering.  

The company is also looking to use automated salad makers in more of its locations. Sweetgreen says the system, called Infinite Kitchen, improves order accuracy and allows the company to serve food faster, bolstering profitability. 

Williams spent 18 years at Starbucks, rising to president of North America and helping boost the coffee chain’s same-store sales, Sweetgreen said. She departed Starbucks in 2022, declining an offer for a different position, after the return of founder Howard Schultz and following what the company described as a “difficult, but necessary change.” 

She was put in the spotlight as a battle with unionized workers heated up at the company, with allegations of threats and firings of organizers. Starbucks has denied wrongdoing.

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