Juice It Up!, one of the nation’s leading handcrafted smoothie, superfruit bowl and raw juice chains, has achieved a whopping 25.8 percent same store sales (SSS) increase year-over-year for the first quarter of 2021. This impressive news comes closely on the heels of Juice It Up! announcing that 2020 was the brand’s highest sales growth year in its 26-year history. According to the brand’s leadership team, the supercharged sales momentum in Q1 is a result of strong performance in “skip-the-line” mobile ordering and third-party delivery, continued increases in guest satisfaction due to excellent franchisee execution at the store level, ongoing advancement of a more flexible, creative and data driven and digital focused marketing strategy, and more targeted value-added promotions, all of which made a positive impact during the quarter.
“This strong growth across the board is testament to the brand’s resilient franchisees, loyal fans and new guests who are making health and wellness a priority, and we are thrilled to see the fantastic momentum achieved last year continue into 2021,” says Susan Taylor, president & CEO of Juice It Up! “We’re committed to remaining on the forefront of product innovation to offer our guests the most functionally delicious products on the market and are thrilled to see the shift in consumer behavior of keeping immune health top of mind.”
On the development front, Juice It Up! opened two new California locations, in Ripon and Santa Ana, and continues to update existing stores with the brand’s refreshed new store design which was unveiled last summer. Juice It Up! also advanced its efforts to attract the interest of like-minded entrepreneurs and multi-unit, multi-brand franchise owners in Q1, securing three new franchise commitments in the Palmdale, Santa Clarita and Reedley, Calif. regions. Additional development opportunities continued to progress in Northern California and Arizona, with a handful of new franchise agreements executed in these areas immediately following the close of the quarter.
Along with rolling out a new and cleaner menu board design systemwide in Q1, the expansion of the brand’s already extensive lineup of immunity boosting products greatly contributed to significant category growth of specialty smoothies by 33 percent, classic smoothies by 24 percent, and raw juice by more than 20 percent. Further, due to the highly portable and customizable nature of Juice It Up!’s acai and superfruit bowls, the brand saw a massive category increase of over 43 percent in its versatile bowl line during the quarter. Additionally, in January, Entrepreneur Magazine named Juice It Up! as one of the “Hottest Franchise Opportunities” of 2021. All in all, it was a watershed quarter for the brand.
Taylor continues, “The many enhancements implemented last year, such as the launch of Juice It Up!’s updated mobile app with the added convenience of “skip-the-line” ordering and pay-ahead functionality, and the ability to receive delivery of our products where and when you want, are really resonating with our guests and franchisees alike as we see digital orders continue to climb. As healthy fast casual continues to pick up steam, we are well poised to carve out a larger share of ownership in the booming segment and are steadily expanding Juice It Up!’s presence throughout the western U.S. and beyond.”
