After 'Spartans', Sweetie Salad moves on with rapid growth

Sweetie Salad's founders Yu Wenlu (left) Wu Jingran. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"We saw the international trend of having salad as a meal among the middle class and white collars," said Wu. "In China, with the economic growth, we see lots of Chinese people have also reached the stage of pursuing a healthy lifestyle. However, we noticed that it was hard to find low-priced yet good quality salad meals that people could eat regularly."

Sweetie Salad's colorful meals all come in large portions in transparent jars, which should be enough to feed most hungry stomachs. The 10 salad options come in three categories: beauty, muscle and BMI (body mass index), with calorie and protein amount marked for each product.

Customers can also choose from a wide range of dressings to go with their salads. Upon receiving the food, they need to pour on the dressing, close the jar and do a bit fun exercise by shaking the salad well before eating.

A single salad ranges in price from 25 to 55 yuan ($4-9), and customers order it at least one day in advance, either through its website or official WeChat account.

So far, Sweetie Salad still sells exclusively online and has no plan to expand by opening retail stores. With the money saved by not paying rent, Sweetie Salad's founders believe they can spend more on ingredients and service, and probably publicity.