Is a Juice Bar Right for your Club?

We are all different from our heads to our toes, and so it goes for each and every health club across America. The dynamics that make up a health club are vast, ranging from location to physical structure to the very people who frequent the club. No two clubs are alike – kind of like snowflakes. So, considering a juice bar means you must first consider all of the dynamics that make up your unique situation.

No matter what your situation is, a juice bar can be a valuable addition to your club – if only to bring your members the necessary nutrition they may be lacking in everyday life or after a tough workout. And, if a juice bar is managed properly and offers the highest quality products, it can increase a club’s revenue significantly. But, I’ve witnessed club owners make the mistake of over-building a juice bar. Don’t always adopt the Field of Dreams adage, “build it and they will come” to solve all problems; it doesn’t work that way. Conversely, I’ve seen clubs throw a cooler filled with ice behind the front counter; put up a dry erase board and call it a menu; commit one dedicated person to manage the juice bar, and they’ve got a gold mine. Why the difference? It is really a combination of several things that are going to make or break your juice bar dreams. Here are three important steps you can take to make your juice bar dreams happen:

1. Do your Homework
First, do your homework in order to make informed, educated decisions. Establish over what period of time your ROI needs to be realized… Is it six months, one year, two years? Then, “reverse-engineer” back to the cost you are able to pay for the initial investment. Estimating realistic profit potentials for your club is key. Be careful when listening to companies that want to sell their packages because they have a tendency to exaggerate profits to get the deal. Know that there are well-known juice bar companies that will only yield a 4-8% penetration level – meaning for every 100 people who walk through the door, an average of six people buy a shake – hardly worth $75,000 for a build out. Conversely, there are also companies that may help your penetration levels grow to 30% and greater – obviously a big difference. Find out about all of the juice bar companies and the products. You will want to sell products other than shakes to help increase profits, like protein bars, RTDs and snacks. Personally, I believe that healthier varieties of these products are the wave of the future and these are what folks want. The average profit per shake is approx. $3 and the average profit for ancillary goods is a 50% margin. So, do the math. Calculate how many people walk through your door every day, and then extrapolate the numbers.

2. Select the Right Location
Another very important consideration is, “Location, location, location.” When trying to decide where the juice bar should be located within your club, be sure to choose a place that is somewhere between the locker rooms and the exit door. This is critical. There is a club in Hawaii that has a juice bar two floors above this critical area, and members need to go out of their way to access healthy shakes, but because the club has done a good job of educating their members about nutrition and they are serving a great product, folks make the journey. They are fortunate, but there are clubs that are not so fortunate. Eliminate the worry. Build your juice bar in the right place the first time.

3. Focus on the Business
Remember to treat your juice bar as a separate business. The most successful ones are those that are separate from the front counter. The reason is simple, if a club is only staffing enough people to do one task, then something usually suffers. To be successful and more profitable, your club must focus on each business element individually. You will need a dependable person-in-charge for your juice bar; someone who takes their responsibility seriously, but who comes across like a bartender; like Susan at Cherry Hill Athletic Club in New Jersey. Susan watches the details and is always implementing new programs to keep things fresh. Members of the club like Susan because of her upbeat personality and because of consistent product. Members also know that when they purchase a shake, it’s going to be consistent both in taste and in nutritional content. Put it all together and this person-in-charge will make your juice bar a resounding success.

If you have established your projected ROI; chosen the perfect location, and hired a dependable, focused staff member to run the place – then you are ready for a juice bar! Anyone can do it.

Dan Young is President of Performance Food Centers, Corp. He is accomplished in juice bar concept and design as well as being certified in personal training and sports nutrition. He can be contacted at 866.632.1927, or visit www.performancefoodcenters.com.