Ones to Watch | By Sabrina Davis
Blendz
“We wanted to offer all the variety under one roof, so people wouldn’t
have to stand in line for a made-to-order sandwich or salad here and go
next door to get a smoothie to go with it,” Phipps says.
Innovation has been on Phipps’ mind from the start, so he jumped
at a unique opportunity to partner with a flagship BMW store in Santa Clara,
California. “We were barely a year old when they approached us about
putting a café inside the dealership. With negligible overhead, we
can do a fraction of the business and make the same profit.”
A typical Blendz check tops out a $6. Stores average 200 customers
between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Catering is a growing part of the business,
comprising 25 to 35 percent of sales.
Blendz
CEO: Matt Phipps
HQ: Campbell, California.
Year Started: 2003
Annual Sales: $1.3 million
Total Units: 7
Franchise Units: 2
Why
it bears watching: His marketing experience has taught Phipps that
a blend is a good thing. He chose the name Blendz to emphasize offering “a
blend of different foods, or a chance to blend your own salad or smoothie.
Or maybe it comes across as we cater to a blend of customers,” Phipps
says. “It just makes sense, and is solid and recognizable.”
Finding what makes sense to his audience is Phipps’ passion. He’s
in the people business serving food, he says. That mentality might be the
secret to his success, and big success is what he has in mind. He intends
to grow in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado to 200 locations in
the next five years before jumping across the country to build out the East
Coast. “We’re getting a lot of inquiries from Texas and Florida,
but we’re having to say that’s not part of our expansion plan
at this time. I don’t want to shotgun across the U.S. and put a strain
on distribution.”
Blendz uses national food distributors to bring in everything precooked
and presliced. “We created it to be as simple as possible, to ensure
consistency, and to open the door for more people to get into this model
without a restaurant background,” Phipps says.
