Juice It Up!, one of the leading raw juice bar and hand-crafted smoothie chains in the U.S., has opened its newest nontraditional unit inside the LA Fitness in Arlington, Texas. This marks the chain’s ninth nontraditional opening, which are located on university campuses, inside fitness clubs, and a minor league baseball park. Four more nontraditional venues are in development inside malls, convenience stores, and additional college campuses. The Arlington opening is the second Juice It Up! located inside a LA Fitness operated by Moe Al-Sharif and Kevin Johnson of Cure Health Care, LLC.
Juice It Up!’s franchise partners continue to recognize the lucrative business in the nontraditional arena, and are actively seeking unique venue opportunities that are a good fit for the brand’s products, which are designed to meet the nutritional wants and needs of guests at every level of health.
“Opening Juice It Up! in a gym has proved to be a very smart business investment as we are catering to guests who are dedicated to a healthy lifestyle and are looking for ‘food-as-fuel’ while on the go,” Al-Sharif says. “After exceeding sales expectations in our first gym location, we were eager to open our second Juice It Up! in a fitness center while continuing to grow with the brand.”
Nontraditional units, often operating on a significantly smaller footprint, are still able to offer the full Juice It Up! menu of blended-to-order real fruit and veggie smoothies, fresh-squeezed functional raw juices, and nutrient-rich superfruit bowls. In addition to refreshing smoothies and juices, Juice It Up! recently introduced Smoothie Bowls where guests can transform their favorite Smoothie into a nourishing meal replacement, topped with fresh bananas, granola, and a drizzle of honey.
“Juice It Up! has been a leader in the raw juice and smoothie segment for over 20 years and we have built an effective business model enabling our franchise partners to succeed in both traditional and non-traditional venues,” says Carol DeNembo, vice president of business development for Juice It Up! “Our partners have seen tremendous success in operating in high-traffic sites like malls, gyms, and college campuses, where there is little to no segment competition. It’s clear that the Juice It Up! menu is perfect for venues where guests can grab something fast and still feel really good about it.”
