Juice bars gain popularity

Daily Juice in Austin is scheduled to open in March a new prototype unit for franchising. The franchisor has one location with a café format, offering cold-pressed juices, salads and sandwiches. John Martin, who previously developed the franchise program for Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, joined the company last year to develop a more contemporary design for franchising. With footprints between 800- and 1,200-square feet, the new Daily Juice model will focus on high-volume, urban locations or university campuses. Consumers, Martin said, want healthful options. “There’s such an outcry for going in this direction. We see that market as untapped,” he said. “I saw this Daily Juice as a brand ripe for expansion.

Earthbar in Los Angeles was founded by Bernie Bubman, a pharmacist who also founded and later sold the Great Earth vitamin brand. He opened the first Earthbar in 2007 with his son Noah Bubman. “Young people today don’t really like taking vitamins,” Noah said. “They want their nutrition fresh, unprocessed and unpasteurized.” Earthbar offers both cold-pressed juices made in house, as well as fresh-squeezed to order. With one freestanding location and eight more located in fitness centers, the father and son team see room for more growth. “Don’t underestimate the insight of Starbucks into consumer trends,” Noah added. “People want health and wellness.” Noah Bubman is pictured above serving guests at Earthbar’s flagship West Hollywood location.

Juice It Up!, which has 90 locations and is based in Irvine, Calif., is retrofitting existing stores to add fresh-squeezed juice options with ingredients like kale, spinach, carrots, ginger, lemon and other never-frozen fruits. “We have been known as a smoothie chain that sells juice. Now we want to be a juice bar chain that sells smoothies,” said Carol Skinner, Juice It Up! director of marketing.

When Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz sought someone to help the company develop a juice bar concept, he visited Liquiteria in New York, later hiring the 17-year-old unit’s manager. Liquiteria owner Doug Green said his 600-square-foot location, which offers both in-house cold-pressed juices and fresh squeezed, generates about $3 million in annual sales, and business is better than ever, prompting him to consider opening a second location in New York. “We were the first modern juice concept,” he said. “We took it out of the back of health food stores and made it mainstream.

Puree Artisan Juice Bar opened in January in Bethesda, Md., just outside Washington, D.C. Owner Amy Waldman said the concept offers grab-and-go bottled juices that are cold-pressed in house, as well as customized fresh-squeezed blends, shakes and purees, along with a small menu of raw and vegan dishes. With only eight seats around the bar, Puree does mostly takeout, and its location next to a fitness center provides a steady source of business. “People come after their workouts or after work, and at lunch they use our drinks as meal replacements or for cleanse or detox diets,” she said.