According to Brian Woodford, the director of nutrition at The Edge Fitness Clubs, the top struggle people face when attempting to achieve results is knowing what to eat.
To help members overcome this struggle, each of The Edge Fitness Clubs’ 17 locations feature a juice and smoothie bar boasting healthy nutrition options.
“We provide members the avenue to create a healthy ‘meal’ at our shake bars that they appreciate,” said Woodford. “People want to know what they should be doing and what they should be eating. We train our fitness consultants to help with this.”
Woodford explained the juice and smoothie bars have the added benefit of creating a space for members to create lasting relationships with staff or other members. “The Edge is all about community, and the shake bar is oftentimes a meeting place where community is born — whether it’s sharing a post-workout shake with your buddy or family member, or somewhere to teach someone the ins and outs of nutrition, or just a place to get a friendly smile and conversation,” he said.
According to Woodford, when implemented and executed properly, a juice and smoothie bar has high profit potential.
“The experience is what produces revenue,” said Woodford. “We want our members to come in, workout and hang out at our shake bars afterward. It’s imperative that we have friendly fitness consultants behind the desk ready to offer a smile and any guidance one would need when selecting the shake that is right for them.”
The Edge works with a number of partners to fuel its smoothie and juice bars, including Shake This and dotFIT. In addition, the clubs carry a number of ingredients to add to smoothies and shakes, such as fruits, spinach, kale, and additives like creatine, glutamine and a multivitamin.
When searching for a partner for its smoothie and juice bars, Woodford explained it was important to choose a company with a reputation of integrity. “dotFIT is just that,” he said. “Not to mention all of their products are research based and third-party tested. It’s important to us that we can fill the gaps in our members’ nutrition through supplementation and that we use a brand that we know is safe and poses no risk to us for recommendation.”
According to Woodford, one of the biggest challenges is keeping up with inventory. To overcome that challenge, The Edge appointed someone to take ownership of that portion of the business.
“If they see something is low or close to it, they go and fill it and check how much we have left and notify if needed,” explained Woodford. “We appointed a shake lead in every bar to execute this.”
Maintaining a consistent experience is also a challenge, which is why it’s vital to create standard operating procedures and ensure they’re being implemented.
Woodford’s final bit of advice? “Smile and say hi,” he said. “If you create a positive customer experience for members while helping them in pursuit of their goals, then the juice bar will be successful.”
