Juice-Bar: Niche Market Full of Energy

 
Juice – a veritable summer subject that goes perfectly with the current trends towards  wellness and health, and that has gained greatly in momentum thanks to the increasing popularity of smoothies in recent years. However, juice bars thrive in countries with lots of sunshine significantly better than in Central and North Europe where it is much more difficult for fruity mono-products to attract customers the whole year round. Thus, in cooler latitudes, the vast majority of formulas of this kind rely on alternatives to survive the winter months.Our pan-European overview introduces the leading players
 

 

UK and Ireland

Interest in fresh juice as a foodservice niche first surfaced in the UK in the 1980swith the Big Orange franchise, combining specialised whole fruit juicing machinesand quick service counter inside a giant orange-shaped fibreglass kiosk.
 
Mainly targeting outdoor catering events, the concept was highly visible but struggled with variable weather, price resistance and the inconsistent quality of imported fruit. It was not until the more affluent and health-conscious late-1990s that kioskand cafe operators again showed interest in ‘real’ juice. Much of the impetus camefrom the emergent smoothie category, which translated in the UK as a creamychain of 22 takeaway/cafe outlets, mostly high street and mall sites plus captive corporate/office concessions such as the large exhibition centres at Earls Court, Olympiaand Excel. The healthy positioning of its freshly pressed, squeezed and blended drinks iscomplemented by a range of grab-and-go foods, notably soups to counter poor weather but also sandwiches, wraps, toasties, salads, and Healthpots including Dip Stick snacks and porridge and muesli pots geared to breakfast and morning trade.
 
Focused mainly on stressed-out office workers, the Crussh model has not spread on the UK high street with the same rapidity as the speciality coffee bar brands but most of the country’s main shopping malls now have at least one fresh juice exponent, typically in brightly branded kiosks emblazoned with healthy eating messages. It’s still a very active  sector, with many independent operators attracted by apparently low entry costs. However,the inevitable seasonal demand variations plus operational issues such as wastage control continue to make juice a challenging foodservice niche.
 
Specialist operators have not necessarily been helped by the huge success of Innocent, founded by three young  Cambridge graduates in 1999, who ingeniously packaged combination of juice and yoghurt rather than the crushed ice concoction popularised in California. A notable exponent was Crussh, started in 1998 by former financial worker James Learmond at a time when more attention was being focused on cafes and takeaways emulating the Seattle ‘gourmet coffee’ model. Crussh took on what many might see as a much bigger challenge: encouraging rain-prone, health-averse London office workers to buy pricey drinks made from perishable raw materials unpredictably available on much lower marginsthan coffee. But assisted by an ingredient buying philosophy with echoes of the Pret A Manger sandwich chain – no additives, preservatives, GM foods or added salt and sugar – Crushh has managed to build up a an attractive range of high quality chilled juices and smoothie products in small, short-life bottles.
 

 
Other countries featured in this article are: Germany, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Russia
 

 
| 6 August 2010 |