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CANADIAN JUICE CHAIN OPENS STORES IN U.S.

By Maura K. Ammenheuser

Having shaken and stirred itself across Canada, Booster Juice is now boosting its juice in the U.S. Canada’s self-described biggest smoothie chain, Booster Juice operates about 150 units in its home country, where it launched in 1999. The Canadian stores’ annual sales range from $250,000 to $900,000. Jon Amack, the chain’s co-founder and president, declines to reveal U.S. revenues, saying those stores are still too new. “We’re a cult brand in Canada,” Amack said, quipping that there are few competitors selling frozen drinks in a cold climate. Edmonton-based Booster Juice usually opens about 20 to 35 stores a year in Canada and will continue to for the next few years, he says.

Now Amack, an American, and co-founder Dale Wishewan, a Canadian, are stirring up the American market. As of mid-February the chain was running 13 units in the U.S. — in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, New York, Oregon and Utah. Amack says they expect to have 50 more in the U.S. by year-end. In addition, the company operates eight units in Saudi Arabia. Nearly every unit worldwide is in a shopping center of one kind or other.

Booster Juice works with regional developers to choose new sites, says Amack. The developer helps with real estate and construction decisions, but the shops are run by franchisees. The company shies away from regional malls, preferring the higher traffic counts of super-regionals. Open-air centers work well in warm climates, Amack says, and the company also takes space in grocery-anchored community centers. The shops measure about 1,100 square feet.

Booster Juice is growing rapidly but has a small real estate staff, so it relies on the presence of national chains as a barometer of a center’s strength. “If they have Cold Stone [Creamery], then we haven’t missed our mark,” Amack said. A local population with middle-to-high income levels is important, he says. “Population density is critical because you’re selling a $4 item.”

The company is capitalizing on the growing popularity of smoothies, those cold and creamy blender concoctions of fruit, juice and yogurt or other thickener, often with herbal or nutritional add-ins. The “boosters” include bee pollen, bilberry leaf, echinacea and wheat bran, among others. Its top-selling smoothie is Strawberry Sunshine, made from strawberries (of course), strawberry sorbet, passion fruit, guava juice and yogurt. Booster Juice also makes nonsmoothie fruit or vegetable juices.

Health-conscious consumers seeking nutritious alternatives to traditional fast food for meals or snacks are behind the growth of the smoothie business. According to Mintel International, a Chicago-based consumer research firm, made-to-order smoothies constitute the bulk of the business in the U.S., and these are sold at juice bars and restaurants. (Prepackaged drinks are the other segment.) The custom category holds 94 percent of the market, and those sales reached $1.5 billion in 2005. Mintel expects the 2006 sales figures to increase to $1.9 billion.

Amack says Booster Juice was born after he had trouble finding eateries that offered tasty, healthy, socially conscious food when he was on the road. “We wanted to create someplace we would want our kids to go,” Amack said. For long-term success, a juice bar’s product “has to be something your body really craves,” he says, especially to get people to buy three or four times a week.

The Canadian shopping center landlords interviewed for this article lauded Booster Juice as a strong tenant. It’s a great fit with the health-conscious lifestyle of western Canadians, says Donna Markin, general manager of Aberdeen Mall, in Kamloops, British Columbia, which has one of the smoothie shops in a kiosk away from the food court, where it happens to have an Orange Julius. Booster Juice, she says, has a great presentation. She points to its growing its own wheatgrass in the store, for example, and celebrates its wide appeal — to children, older people, athletes and others. The prices, she notes, are no different from those of a Starbucks. The Aberdeen Mall Booster Juice posts sales that are significantly higher than the mall’s average of C$1,000 ($850) per square foot, Markin says, though she would not cite specific figures.

Booster Juice is hardly a household name in the U.S., however. Amack says he and Wishewan always intended to head south after the chain was firmly established in Canada. He figures that in about a decade, Booster Juice will have maxed out its potential in Canada.

One of the first U.S. locations Booster Juice announced was Dana Park Village, a lifestyle center in Mesa, Ariz., built by Triple Five Arizona Development Corp. The first two phases opened about three years ago, and Booster Juice sits on a roughly 1,600-square-foot pad there. “Every smoothie bar wanted to be at Dana Park,” said Heather Brechbilo, leasing manager for Triple Five. The firm chose Booster Juice mostly because of its existing working relationship with the chain in Canada, at West Edmonton Mall, Brechbilo says. Triple Five also appreciates that Booster Juice sells items besides smoothies, such as sandwiches. Dana Park’s demographics are heavy on families and teens, making the center a good match for Booster Juice, says Brechbilo. Dana Park’s Booster Juice posts about $1,000 per square foot in sales.

One thing that may set Booster Juice apart is its work force.

Amack sums it up this way: “We’ll put you in a better mood when you leave than when you walked in.”