HOW TO SET UP A SUCCESSFUL JUICE BUSINESS

HOW TO SET UP A SUCCESSFUL JUICE BUSINESS

Top 5 Tips for Starting a Cold Pressed Juice Business

Opening a juice business seems pretty straight forward. You make juice, and you sell it. Easy money. Well, there are some things you need to figure out before everything can be open and operating. After working with hundreds of new juice companies, I have compiled a short list of tips that will keep you from running into many common issues.

1. Know your local health laws concerning raw juice.

The laws concerning raw juice vary greatly by region. For example, in the US, the FDA states that raw juice can be sold directly to consumers via retail or delivery, but not wholesale to third parties that are going to resell it. If you want to sell wholesale, you need to process the juice by either heat pasteurization or HPP. You can, however, make the juice in a central location and sell it through multiple store locations if your company owns both the production facility and the stores. This is still considered direct to consumer. (That is what the federal law says, but local / state laws may be different, and some are changing.)

Japan has the strictest laws I have seen. A business has to make raw juice at the same location it is sold. Compare this to countries like Australia and China where there is virtually no regulation on raw juice, and companies are free to wholesale as they wish. I expect some of the regions with the more relaxed laws will begin to shift towards stricter regulations in the near future as raw juice becomes more popular.

The easiest and best way to learn about health regulations is to contact your local health department.

2. Decide which business model you’re going to use.

There are 4 basic business models in a juice business: Delivery only, brick and mortar, wholesale, and combination. Each business model has its pros and cons. Decide which type of business you want to run, and get together the funding you need. Despite which business model you choose, it’s important to choose so you know where to spend your energy.

Pro tip: Start with delivery or a brick and mortar retail store, but aim for eventually combining them and offering the consumer several options for buying your product.

3. Get the right equipment.

Set yourself up for success. Invest in the right equipment for your business. It may be tempting to save money and buy cheap equipment, but you will lose out on labor costs and wasted produce, costing you more money in the end.  Your juice equipment may be the most important investment you will make. Not sure where to start? Download our kitchen layout infographic with equipment list.

4. Figure out what type of bottles you want to use.

Decide if you want to go with glass or plastic, and find a supplier. You can stock up on BPA free plastic bottles easily on our “Bottle Up!” app here.  If you live outside of the US, you should look for a local supplier since shipping bottles overseas can end up being very costly.

Large print houses like Weber Packaging Solutions  handle large quantity juice label printing and automation. For smaller quantities, online suppliers like Sticker Mule make it quick and easy to get your labels fast. Before you design, or have your labels designed, make sure to get the necessary label requirements from your local health department. You can order nutrition label services here.

Pro tip: Glass bottles do a great job at giving your product a high-end feel, and keeping plastic away from your juice. However going glass comes with a price. Only choose glass if you are selling a high-end, expensive product.

5. Know your numbers:

It may be tempting to throw every superfood known to man into every bottle, but unless you live in an area where people will pay $25 per bottle, a business isn’t sustainable that way. The cost of the ingredients that you put into every bottle should be no more than 25%-30% of the final price of the product. For more information, read my article on calculating food costs for cold pressed juice.

In addition to food cost, you need to manage your labor costs, packaging costs, and overhead to be in line with your sales. Want to play around with some numbers and calculate your profit? Try our free Juicing Profit and ROI Calculator.

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