Juice It Up is finding new success from an old idea: smaller stores. Really small.
One of its juice and smoothie franchises recently opened as a co-brand in an indie restaurant near Santa Barbara, and next month another mini version opens in a Central California convenience store.
They’re downsized versions of a standard on franchising’s playlist.
Chains augment regular offerings with smaller-footprint ones driven by lack of space and desire to grow. The express version can go in airports, at sporting venues, in repurposed parking lots, and the like.
Orange County-based chains that have tried it include Wienerschnitzel, owned by Irvine-based Galardi Group Inc., and Johnny Rockets Group Inc. in Lake Forest, owned by Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sun Capital Partners.
“Twelve percent of our locations are nontraditional,” said Carol DeNembo, vice president of business development at Balboa Brands Inc. in Irvine, which owns Juice It Up and franchises it under LLJ Franchise LLC.
Smaller is Fruitiful
Those include a half-dozen on college campuses, two in LA Fitness gyms in Texas, and a stand-alone mall kiosk.
One of its two franchises at California State University-Fullerton is “in a trailer, [franchised] by a law student.”
Now it’s condensing those.
Juice It Up—No. 30 on the Business Journal list of OC-based restaurant chains—had 90 sites, all but one franchised, and systemwide sales of $33 million last year, including those in development. It’s poised to top 100 locations.
One in development is at a Fresh Fill store in Los Banos, Calif., north of Fresno, inside a Chevron gas station. It has a car wash—and a drive-thru to pick up smoothies ordered by mobile app; in-store orders are placed at a kiosk.
Raw juices or acai bowls where folks expect quarter-pound spicy hot dogs and nacho cheese from a plastic dispenser?
It’s In There
“I’m hearing from a lot of oil and gas executives,” DeNembo averred. “It’s a fresh take on convenience.”
One owner of a dozen gas stations who called had added fried chicken to his chain and it wasn’t working—he saw he was “in an affluent and health-conscious market” where people might not want their food extra crispy.
“Quality of experience” at such locales is getting a kickstart, she said, i.e., clean bathrooms—with, as ever, the aim of getting people into the building.
“They want to drive consumers inside where the profits are,” she said.
Customers can get “healthy snack and meal options not typically offered by traditional convenience stores,” said Brian Rocha, operating partner of Fresh Fill Convenience Stores Inc., in a statement.
Fresh Fill is affiliated with gas wholesaler-retailer Windecker Fuel Inc. in Los Banos and plans more locations.
Aloha
Perhaps few drivers look for a Subway sandwich counter at an interstate Stuckey’s or run into 7-Eleven for the kale-and-cranberry salad, but it’s a legit niche.
“It’s fresh, healthy, convenient, and reduces the number of stops” on the way home, DeNembo said.
Chicago restaurant consultant Darren Tristano said, “Small spaces, low rent, and high foot traffic are key.”
He said Jollibee, for instance—a Philippines-based chicken chain—locates in Asian supermarkets its customers frequent; such “nontraditional [franchise] locations continue to be strong investments.”
Juice It Up’s co-brand with HiWi Tropical Fusion is a half-mile from the University of California-Santa Barbara. The menu includes grass-fed beef burgers and wild-caught tuna and shrimp; avocado toast, quinoa and organic greens.
Like the healthful grab-and-go, DeNembo said, the college town restaurant fit the chain’s customer profile: Its juices were seen as integrating with vegan and gluten-free items and complementing its roasted coffee and organic teas.
Payoff
DeNembo said abridged versions of full-size sites keep franchise pipelines flowing amid competition from newer concepts—refreshed ideas that appeal to entrepreneur-creative types while cutting startup costs.
A Juice It Up costs $216,000 to $378,000 to build; the low-end of the range is for its smallest entrants: kiosks that start as small as 200 square feet.
Co-brands and the corner of a Quik-E-Mart—where operators already have real estate—can slash that further.
The franchise fee is $25,000, and DeNembo doesn’t broadcast it, but the “in-the-door” amount can start as low as $2,500. Royalties and marketing are 8% of gross sales. A traditional unit’s average annual sales are about $405,000.
One possible dilemma with the new approach is that the smaller a concept gets, the more likely someone figures they can do the same product without the brand.
When that happens, DeNembo said, “I always tell them good luck!”
