Growth is often celebrated in hospitality.
More locations. More visibility. More customers.
But behind every expansion comes a much more difficult operational reality: maintaining alignment as complexity increases.
During our latest MobieTalks🎙️ session, Alexander Jerejian, COO at Salsa Shop, shared how the company evolved to 18 locations while preparing for new openings across the Netherlands and International markets.
Unlike our previous conversation focused on onboarding and training consistency, this session explored a broader leadership challenge: How do you scale operations, teams, communication, and customer experience without losing control along the way?
One message became very clear throughout the discussion:
“Growth is exciting, but if you scale faster than your people and systems can handle, things start to break”.
Here are the biggest key takeaways from the session and the full recording:
Scaling Hospitality Is Not Just About Opening More Locations
When Alex joined Salsa Shop, the brand had four locations.
Then came COVID, which significantly slowed down expansion plans and forced the company to rethink its strategy. Instead of focusing purely on growth, Salsa Shop shifted its mindset toward long-term sustainability.
Today, the brand operates 18 locations, with new openings planned this year, including Schiphol Airport, Haarlem, and an upcoming international expansion. But for Alex, scaling successfully is not about how many restaurants you open.
It is about protecting what made the brand successful in the first place.
“You need to go slow to grow fast".
That philosophy became a core part of Salsa Shop’s operational strategy. Rather than aggressively chasing expansion, the company focused on maintaining high standards across existing locations before opening new ones.
What Actually Starts to Break When Hospitality Brands Scale?
According to Alex, the biggest challenge changes as the company grows.
With 4–5 locations, the focus is mostly operational and day-to-day. But once brands scale past 10 locations, the real challenge becomes consistency.
Keeping teams aligned. Keeping standards consistent. Maintaining the same customer experience everywhere. And that is where many hospitality brands struggle.
“You can’t scale properly if you don’t have the right people".
Alex explained that systems and processes matter, but people remain the foundation of sustainable growth.
One of the most interesting insights from the session was Salsa Shop’s decision to close four underperforming locations. The reason was not only financial. Low-volume locations were negatively impacting team motivation. And according to Alex, when teams become bored or disengaged, customer experience suffers immediately.
“You would think that if only a few customers come in, they would receive amazing service. But if the team is not motivated, customers feel that energy instantly".
For Salsa Shop, protecting customer experience sometimes meant making difficult operational decisions.
Why Culture Matters More Than Speed
One recurring theme throughout the webinar was culture.
For Alex, maintaining the same energy and passion as the company grows is one of the hardest parts of scaling. And it starts with hiring.
“You can teach anybody how to make a burrito.
You can’t teach motivation and energy".
Instead of focusing primarily on experience, Salsa Shop prioritises mindset and attitude during recruitment. The company looks for people who genuinely want to be part of the team and contribute to the brand culture.
Because, according to Alex, “People came before growth. Not the opposite.”
That mindset also shapes how the company supports employees. Rather than expecting teams to constantly perform at 100%, Salsa Shop focuses on long-term engagement and support.
Alex compared it to building a community: "We are not robots. People have ups and downs. When someone is struggling, you support them.”
Monthly gatherings, team outings, competitions between locations, and constant communication all help maintain team motivation across a growing organisation.
Scaling Communication and Operations Without Losing Alignment
Another major challenge discussed during the session was onboarding and communication at scale. When the company was smaller, onboarding was highly personal. New hires would hear the story of the brand directly from leadership. But as the company grew, keeping that onboarding experience consistent became much harder.
“Managers do their best, but once information passes through multiple people, the message starts to change".
Initially, Salsa Shop relied on manuals and printed guidelines. But those documents quickly became difficult to maintain across locations.
Some teams updated them. Others did not.
That is when the company decided to digitalise onboarding and training. Alex explained that the goal was not only operational consistency, but also about engagement.
“People today don’t want to read long texts”.
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Instead, Salsa Shop shifted towards:
Short training videos
Visual learning content
Mobile-first onboarding
Quizzes and gamification
Easy access to operational knowledge
Digitalising communication and onboarding became essential as the organisation expanded. Using MobieTrain, Salsa Shop centralised training and communication for more than 300 employees.
Today, every team member receives the same onboarding story, operational standards, updates, and learning materials, directly from leadership.
And importantly, employees can access information whenever they need it.
Whether it is learning how to prepare a recipe or reviewing operational procedures, knowledge is always available.
Technology Should Support People, Not Replace Them
The webinar also touched on the growing role of technology and AI in hospitality.
For Alex, technology should simplify operations and free up time for what matters most: people.
“AI is not a competitor. It’s a tool to make our lives easier”.
At Salsa Shop, technology helps automate operational tasks and streamline communication, but hospitality remains deeply human.
The company intentionally offers customers two ordering experiences:
• Digital ordering kiosks
• Human interaction at the counter
Because not every customer wants the same experience.
And according to Alex, hospitality is ultimately about relationships.
“If customers only want food, they can go to a supermarket".
That human element is what creates recurring customers and long-term brand loyalty.
The Real Challenge of Scaling Hospitality
The conversation with Salsa Shop highlighted something many hospitality brands experience: Growth itself is not the problem. The challenge is maintaining alignment as complexity increases.
Keeping teams engaged. Keeping onboarding consistent. Keeping operations structured. Keeping customer experience predictable.
And doing all of that without losing the culture and energy that made the brand successful in the first place.
As Alex summarised during the webinar:
“You need to be adaptive. The world changes constantly. But consistency is what protects your brand long term”.
Watch the Full Webinar
Missed the session or want to rewatch it?
Watch the full MobieTalks webinar with Salsa Shop:
And if you wish to see how MobieTrain can help your team grow and scale without losing consistency, request a free DEMO here!
Head of Marketing