Coffee Republic start trial with Projuice

14th October 2008

Smooth operators get taste for healthy profits

A fruit drinks enterprise intends to be more than just flavour of the month

Source; The Times (Steve Hemsley)
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article4934963.ece

As any area sales manager will tell you, you spend a lot of time in coffee shops when you’re on the road. When Paul Ford was in between client visits for electronics company Panasonic, he would note down how a particular cafe looked and his opinions of the menu and the service he received.

This was not some bizarre hobby but valuable research. The bestpractice reference guide he compiled proved to be useful when he left the corporate world to launch his own juice bar, Fresh Xpresss, in Barnstaple, Devon, six years ago.

Unfortunately, Ford, now 38, failed to appreciate just how crowded this sector was about to become as health-conscious consumers got a taste for fruit juices and smoothies. After opening another outlet at nearby Braunton, he shelved his plans for 15 Fresh Xpresss bars across the southwest and followed a new direction.

He realised there wasmoney to be made from supplying juice-bar equipment and training to his growing list of local competitors and to the hundreds of similar bars opening up across the UK. The hours he had spent observing the country’s cafe culture, plus the £182,000 he invested in his two shops, had taught him a lot. Ford felt there was a lack of knowledge among potential and existing juice and cafe-bar owners about what equipment they needed, how to train staff effectively and which promotions work best to ensure people visit time and again.

In 2003 he formed Projuice and began supplying this burgeoning retail sector. Initially, he continued to run his two Fresh Xpresss outlets, but within 12 months these were sold as he threw himself full-time into Projuice. In 2005 he launched a juice and smoothie bar training academy in Exeter. “I made £140,000 profit from the sale of Fresh Xpresss and all this money went into Projuice because I realised there was such a massive gap in the market,” he says.

Projuice helps with drafting business plans, sourcing and supplying smoothie and juice equipment, devising branding ideas and advising on bar layout and design, as well as training the owners and their staff on how to make drinks.

“We practically wrap bar owners in cotton wool until they are ready to open or we act as troubleshooters for bars that are going through difficult times,” says Ford. “People keep their own brand and run their own business. This is not a franchise arrangement, but we do have a relationship which is good for them and for us.”

Projuice works with more than 800 juice bars around the UK and supplies another 2,500 cafes with what Ford calls “juice-bar concepts”. These include “smoothie in a bag” products for cafes that do not want a full juice bar — they need only a blender to add these drinks to their menu. Among Projuice’s concept customers are the supermarket group Budgens and cafe chain Coffee Republic.

Ford’s business is a family affair nowadays, with his brother, David, and sister, Sarah, on board as directors. He predicts that turnover will rise from £2m to £3.8m this year and could top £4.8m in 2009. Ford expects sales to reach £10m by 2013, when he hopes to sell out to a corporate food services company but remain involved in the business.