Jamba Inc. announced the sale of 12 additional restaurants to experienced franchise operators, with the sale of 10 stores in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Blended Star LLC, whose principals are Daljit and Pam Hundal; and two stores in Southern California to RPM Foods Inc., whose principals are Michael Razipour and Pouya Moalej. The purchase of the Utah restaurants by the Hundals includes a development commitment to further expand the Jamba Juice brand. These sales reflect the company’s continuing progress against its strategic refranchising initiative.

“We purposely structured our refranchise packages to enable prospective franchise operators to qualify for small business loans through the SBA program,” says Thibault de Chatellus, senior vice president of global franchise and development for Jamba Juice Company. “That strategy, along with the continued progress against our BLEND plan growth initiatives that are transforming the company, is paying off. We are attracting the right kind of investors to the brand and we expect continued success with the remaining locations, many of which are in varying stages of completion.”

“I am exceptionally proud of the work accomplished by this team since announcing our intent to refranchise these stores last May,” says James D. White, president and CEO of Jamba Inc. “The Jamba brand has always been about inspiring and simplifying healthy living. Our focus on product innovation and brand relevance in the healthy living space makes Jamba a noteworthy investment opportunity for potential franchisees.”

Since announcing their refranchising initiative, Jamba has successfully been able to attract and engage experienced, multi-unit franchise operators to the brand—those that are established with the brand as existing franchise store owners, as well as operators who are expanding their franchise portfolio through the acquisition of a Jamba outlet.

“I own five other franchise operations and I’ve always wanted to own a Jamba Juice. This is an exciting time for us,” Michael Razipour says. “We like how Jamba promotes a healthy, active lifestyle in its brand positioning and offerings. Everyone is trying to follow a trend of being ‘healthier for you,’ but Jamba is already ahead of that curve with their better-for-you offerings.”

“Pam and I currently run an 18 unit franchise operation,” Daljit Hundal says. “We were looking for ways to diversify and expand and were truly impressed with the Jamba culture, product innovation, and their management teams focus on growing the brand. We felt Jamba was the right opportunity in which to invest our capital and we are very happy to be a part of the Jamba franchise family.”

These refranchising transactions build on the sale of 35 restaurant locations in Arizona, Oregon, and California, completed since the refranchising initiative was announced.

With close to one-third of the refranchise store sales complete, the company is well on its way towards achieving its goal of refranchising up to 150 company-owned restaurant locations before the close of 2010.

Jamba was assisted in the close of this sale by the Praetorian Group, franchise transaction specialists.