What’s our Sales Secret? Juice Bar Franchise CEO Tells All

Nékter Juice Bar franchise CEO Steve Schulze is back with more advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, and this time he’s sharing the trade secrets he’s employed to drive massive success and growth in spite of the coronavirus pandemic. Fresh off of last month’s one-on-one Rich Dad Radio Show podcast interview with best-selling author and entrepreneurship guru Robert Kiyosaki, Schulze revealed the recipe for Nékter’s successful juice bar franchise growth and prosperity to FastCasual magazine in an August 7 guest blog post.

In the article, which you can read here, Schulze credits a prescient investment in technology with the ease with which his juice bar franchise has seamlessly pivoted to a business model that prioritizes convenient, ‘grab-n-go’ service, as well as online ordering and delivery, to serve customers with the safety and efficiency that is paramount in our ‘new normal.’ He shares that “sales across our pioneering digital and delivery platforms, developed in 2015 and carrying a userbase of nearly 700,000 pre-COVID-19, have increased 200% in the past four months as compared to the whole of 2019,” attributing that substantial growth to three factors:

-An all-new online ordering and rewards app created by fully integrating the existing Nékter Juice Bar franchise mobile app with POS, loyalty program data, third-party delivery, payment, and online ordering capabilities.  

-The ability to gather complex customer data and deliver customized offers and messaging based on individual purchase history and preferences, driving frequency, engagement, and retention.

-Close monitoring of Yelp, Facebook, and Google reviews at all Nékter Juice Bar franchise locations, as well as consistent surveys from rewards members after each visit.

In addition to driving a massive uptick of mobile app users, Schulze reports that this strategy has helped the Nékter Juice Bar franchise achieve a 30% increase in check averages. He reflects, “By embracing this promise of technology early on, we were able to connect with guests in ways that seemed perhaps superfluous at the time, almost as a luxury, but this very attitude to explore each and every method of connecting with our community has allowed our company, and hence our guests, to thrive during turbulent times.”

Other highlights of Schulze’s FastCasual piece include his discussion of the colossal growth the Nékter Juice Bar franchise has experienced in the face of the pandemic, with 172 open locations and systemwide sales in excess of $100 million, noting that Nékter is “just at the leading edge of our national growth.” He stresses that COVID-19 has done nothing to derail the vertical growth of the Nékter Juice Bar franchise, announcing that “we have plans to open 15 to 20 locations before the end of the year and will launch a new brand campaign in October as we celebrate our 10th anniversary.”

Schulze offers insight into the emphasis on health and wellness that has always been part of the Nékter Juice Bar franchise model compared to legacy brands that blossomed in the juice bar space during the 90s, only to decline in terms of quality and ingredient transparency. He says, “Looking back, I think [these brands] meant well, but as time went on, they proceeded down a slippery slope and became glorified ice cream shops.” He shares that creating Nékter as a lifestyle brand, as opposed to a brand that falls into the “treat category” has helped his juice bar franchise remain relevant in any climate year-round, avoiding the pitfall of being limited to a “Spring Break to Labor Day sales cycle of juice bars of the past.”

Above all, Schulze’s piece zeroes in on exactly what makes the Nékter Juice Bar franchise an ideal concept for investors looking to own a business that fills an essential need for health and wellness in any community, writing, “As we sought 10 years ago to reinvent the juice bar space, with a renewed focus on hand-crafted freshness and transparency, we have become an integral part of the communities we serve, especially now in a time when health, wellness, immunity, transparency, and ingredient integrity is more important than ever.”

Nékter’s impressive sales increase amid the pandemic was also the subject of a recent QSR article which mentions that our juice bar franchise is about to enter three new major markets: Baltimore, Seattle, and Billings, Montana. As we continue to increase our national profile and win the hearts of new, health-conscious consumers in these cities, Schulze and the rest of the Nékter Juice Bar franchise team are committed to upholding the brand’s original tenets of health, freshness, and ingredient transparency through a brand-new campaign compelling guests to “Live Life to the Freshest.” This philosophy, which has been part of the Nékter Juice Bar franchise brand since its inception, falls right in step with increasing consumer demand for healthy, fresh options for on-the-go dining.

“Health and wellness have been trending upwards in America for several years now, and we were at the forefront of that upswing,” notes Schulze. “Now as we continue to navigate this new normal, we are witnessing quite a surge in loyal and new guests turning to us to help boost immunity, energy, and overall health.”

The impressive resilience and growth of the Nékter Juice Bar franchise amid COVID-19 also made headlines in RestaurantNews magazine, spotlighting our brand’s successful recipe of transparency and trust as we prepare to celebrate our 10-year anniversary this October. Schulze is proud that the juice bar franchise model that he put in place a decade ago still remains true to his original vision, filling a largely-unmet consumer need for healthy, convenient meal options that now bears more significance and importance within communities across America than it did when the first Nékter Juice Bar opened its doors in 2010. He remarks, “While we didn’t build the brand with a pandemic in mind, our mission to offer genuinely healthy food created with ingredient integrity has allowed us to support our communities when health and wellness is more important than ever.”

Build a legacy of health and wellness by opening a Nékter Juice Bar franchise in your community. Visit our franchise website for more information.

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