Today’s club owners are experiencing a greater demand for juice bars. Members look to their health clubs not only for advice on good nutrition, but also for beverages and snacks that fit into their healthy lifestyle. A recent survey showed that 80 percent of club members answered that a juice bar was their number one choice for an amenity in a fitness club.
What’s all the buzz about? Why do your clients ask for a juice bar?
Whether your members are looking to bulk up, tone up or slim down, a well-managed juice bar provides the nourishment their body needs before and after a workout. If they don’t find what they need in your club, chances are they will look for it elsewhere. Members want the convenience of picking up a pre- and post-workout shake, protein drink, and other healthy offerings. The demand for healthy beverages is great, this is clear. Now that we understand more about what your members are asking for, let’s take a closer look at the juice bar solution.
What is a juice bar? What do they offer?
Contrary to its name, a juice bar offers more than just juice, although fresh juices are commonly served. Healthy shakes make up the largest percentage of sales. One of the primary reasons for the popularity of shakes is that they taste great, they are filling, and the consumer has the option of adding protein powders or nutritional supplements to them. Consumers customize their shakes to address their nutritional needs. Juice bars will typically offer nutrition bars and other healthy snacks along with beverages. There are a host of companies that manufacture healthy snack items.
A winning combination.
The best results of having a juice bar are realized when you have a winning combination. What does it take to have a winning combination?
• Good coordination and communication with your trainers
• Proper location of the juice bar with good visibility
• The presentation of your juice bar and juice bar products must be clean, fresh and inviting
• The attitude of your juice bar employees should be helpful and friendly
• Your juice bar employees should be knowledgeable about nutrition and products
• The quality of the juice bar ingredients you choose is paramount to your success
• Serve real food with no added sugars or artificial sweeteners (your members know better).
If you have what it takes for a winning combination, it is safe to say that having a properly run juice bar can be the ultimate in providing services to your clientele. The perfect combination is when the trainer counsels the member on good nutrition and then makes suggestions on what smoothies and supplements would be best for them. Club members rely on trainers and club facilitators for advice on nutrition. Keep in mind that giving good advice is great. But, giving good advice and bringing in additional revenues is better.
When does it make sense to build-out a juice bar? How do you know if a juice bar is a good fit for your club?
Let’s take a look at some numbers and determine how a juice bar can impact your bottom line. If you have about 500 workouts a day, you should be selling at least 50 drinks per day – that’s 10 percent penetration. If a juice bar does not meet 10 percent of daily workouts and it only generates 25 to 30 drinks, this will not be a profitable venture. But let’s take a look at the reasons why you might still want to do this:
• Juice bars are the number one club amenity requested by members
• The very presence of a juice bar helps to sell additional memberships
• Juice bars will increase pro-shop sales
• Having a juice bar improves member and employee morale.
Your overall total profitability will be realized!
One of my favorite success stories involves one of the larger national chains whose president stated in their thirdquarter report that their annual pro-shop sales increased by several thousands of dollars in those shops that contained juice bars. This particular chain doubled the amount of juice bars in the next year and it has continued to be a resounding success.
Coupling a juice bar with your pro shop may be the most realistic option for you. You will avoid doubling expenses, such as labor. In addition, if you combine your juice bar and pro shop, then people who are getting a drink will have a tendency to buy other things while they are there and vice-versa.
What’s the bottom line?
The bottom line is that by operating a well-run juice bar and by exercising intelligent utilization of your resources, you will then fully address your member’s needs in terms of exercise and nutrition. Put your members first in terms of nutrition and help them to reach their health and fitness goals. This is an unbeatable package.
Lydia M. Wanders is the Business Development Manager of Dr. Smoothie Enterprises. She can be contacted at 866.878.3889 ext. 133, or by email at info@drsmoothie.com.
