[00:00:04] John Craven: Hi, I'm John Craven with BevNET and we're here for another episode of the BevNET podcast today. I'm in Santa Monica, California at the location of Juice Served here. And I'm joined with, uh, Alex Matthews. Thanks for joining me, Alex. You're welcome, John. Good to see you, mate. Yeah. Always good to see you. So you guys are, uh, you know, geez, I mean, last time I think I was out here, there was no Santa Monica store. Uh, can you give us a quick kind of, you know, just update on what's going on for Juice Served here.
[00:00:30] Alex Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, this store we're in today is one of our newer stores. And it's actually quite close to our other Venice location. But this is a very much more of a walking sort of neighborhood. So we felt like there was another customer on this side of town. Yeah, I think the last time you were here, we had just finished construction on our Silverlake store. And then since then, we've opened a few more. Last year, we did eight locations. We decided that we'd open a couple more as well this year. But last year, We definitely put the team to the test. And I think everyone needed a break in December of store openings. But yeah, the Studio City location was the last one to be built. And I think we all took a break January, February. And then we're sort of now back starting again to look at new locations.
[00:01:31] John Craven: And what's the total right now?
[00:01:33] Alex Matthews: We have 12 locations today, and then we'll have 15 locations by the middle of the summer. And then we have plans for a few other locations as well towards Q4.
[00:01:47] John Craven: Nice.
[00:01:48] Alex Matthews: Yeah. I think the interesting thing about opening so many stores last year was we really got systemized as a team and things became a lot more fluid. And so it was less about explaining things and more about just executing on the plan. But what that also does is it can take your eye off the ball with operations of the stores that you already opened. And so for us, we've spent the last three months just really not opening stores and really looking back and saying like, okay, like, you know, let's focus our attention on operations and training and, you know, campaigns and kind of what this year holds for us. And it's been really healthy.
[00:02:34] John Craven: It's been good. kind of cold press juice category here in LA. I mean, I've always kind of referred to this as like ground zero for a cold press juice. Just kind of always is remarkable how my trip from LAX to Santa Monica would always result in seeing a new store. And I remember at one point when the new store was your shop in Venice. What's sort of your feeling on the market here? I mean, is it oversaturated? Is there still opportunity? Where do you see it?
[00:03:04] Alex Matthews: That's a good question.
[00:03:05] John Craven: And we're in a store here, so it's great we can hear the sounds of progress in sales.
[00:03:14] Alex Matthews: You know, it's funny, a lot of my friends ask me the same question, like, you know, are things saturated in LA yet? You know, I think there's definitely an argument for the guys that have been sort of got in before the wave happened. And I think those guys that got in before the wave happened who are still going. are doing one thing really well, and that is they're turning out great product. And so I think that that will never go away. But what I do think has happened, and we've seen it happen just recently, is that some of the guys that got in when the going was good are now actually no longer in business. And so I think it's got to be about staying true to your mission. And that's what we've tried to do is really just focus on the product and make sure that it's presented in the right way and that the staff are trained and they have the knowledge that if they're asked a question, they can answer it. But I feel like there's going to come a moment where there's probably going to be a juicery on every street corner here in LA. I don't think that will slow down, but I just think that what will slow down is the number of operators. I think you'll see less operators, but you'll still see stores opening, but it will be with probably the brands that are able to weather the storm.
[00:04:37] John Craven: Well, but you also talk about, you know, there being a juicery on every corner, but I mean, what exactly is, is a juicery? I guess, you know, I, when you, when you say juicery, I think of, you know, like self-serve frozen yogurt places or some sort of fad, you know, business that just sells one thing that eventually people tire of, but that's not what you're talking about. Right. I mean, there are a lot of different models to this. So which sort of model or models do you anticipate being the ones that survive?
[00:05:06] Alex Matthews: Yeah, I think that for me when I first started juicing, it was a daily thing, it was a daily ritual, something I did every day and still do. So I think that you want to go somewhere that's going to check a few boxes for you. So I think when I say juicery, what I'm looking for is someone that has great cold-pressed juices, but that you can also get a food item, some water shots, a smoothie.
[00:05:35] John Craven: Coffee, I guess, is big for you guys, right?
[00:05:37] Alex Matthews: Yeah, coffee. We've started introducing coffee into much more of our stores. In fact, all of our locations now have cold brew on tap, which is a Verve product. And then we also have introduced into five locations, actually six locations now with the new store opening in the Valley, we have a full espresso program as well. So you can get a cappuccino or a latte, and we have some fun with that too. So you can get one of our specialty milks, which we make ourselves every single day. you can blend that with an espresso, but we also are having a bit more fun with it too. So now you can get a vegan affogato, for example, it's delicious, it's vegan, coconut ice cream, and we pour a shot of espresso over it, and that's really delicious. But I think when I say juicery, I'm really referring to like the traditional model of they make smoothies, they make juice out of a, you know, regular centrifugal juicer. And then of course, there's the cold press guys too. But yeah, you're right. There's a broad spectrum now.
[00:06:44] John Craven: Yeah. It seems like something that, you know, it always has been interesting to me just to see all the different models out there. I mean, some are effectively, you know, almost like Juice Served restaurants. You still have the classic, you know, all they sell is juice. Maybe they have, I don't know, that coaching concept that I think was big at one point, right, where it was almost like free, weird nutrition consulting. And then there's, you know, obviously any number of other combinations out there. So it's sort of always, you know, I guess something that we talk about a lot is just which model, which models, again, I don't think there's one model that is going to be the exclusive winner, but which ones succeed and which ones don't.
[00:07:25] Alex Matthews: No, yeah, and it's interesting. I think the pure play of just serving cold-pressed juice in a bowl and that's all you serve, you know, obviously there's a space for that. I just don't think the real estate is very big. I think with what we do, we kind of do want people to come in Amanda Huang out and, you know, sort of soak up the culture a little bit. And I think coffee is one of those things that attracts a longer stay, especially hot coffee. And if it's served right, obviously, you know, there's a number of different ways you can look at it. But I think the most exciting thing that's happening is that people are still wanting good cold-pressed juices, but they kind of don't want to have to make two stops. They want to get, you know, good coffee, a good cup of coffee and a juice at the same time. Obviously not a new concept. Howard Schultz has sort of proven that, but I think- It works pretty well. It's working well, but I think it's never been presented in a third wave coffee style. And it's also never been presented with really high quality attention to detail on service and also the knowledge that goes with the juices, because that's the one part that sometimes gets a little sort of slips through the cracks.
[00:08:40] John Craven: And I guess outside of this whole raw juice retail thing, you guys are also doing now an HPP lemonade line that's out there and various retailers. What's your feeling on just this combination of wholesale and retail? I think that's another thing. It seems like there are some companies that are so adamantly against HPP and putting their product in stores. And then obviously, there are others that that's all they do. What's your feeling on the hybrid model that you're following? Is that the winner? Is there a balance between the retail product and the wholesale product? I guess I'm asking a lot of questions here, but it just seems like something that you're almost headed in two different directions, right?
[00:09:28] Alex Matthews: Well, yeah, I mean, I think it could be perceived like that. I think it's one strategy, and it's embracing having one strategy for the brand. Because look, you can be a brand like California Pizza Kitchen, have restaurants, which they do, but they also have a CPG line, which you can pick up now in most grocery stores. I think that it's not a new concept. I think that in the cold press juice space, it might be seen as a new sort of a new venture. But look, you know, we still serve our juice unpasteurized raw in glass in all of our stores. You know, we deliver it fresh to the store every day. We make it every day. The CPG line seemed to me like an obvious extension of the brand. You have to have shelf life. It doesn't mean the product tastes any different. It really doesn't taste any different. The lemonade's a new product. We don't carry the lemonade in our stores right now at all. So this is really something that is focused at the grocery store or distribution arena. And so I felt like it was something that we kind of had to do because I do want people drinking our products out of our home market. And the CPG arena was the perfect vehicle for that.
[00:10:53] John Craven: Well, why offer something that's a completely different product line as opposed to just take these great juices you have in here and HPP them?
[00:11:02] Alex Matthews: Right. Well, so we do have that. We do HPP and distribute 10 of the juices that you can buy at my stores. So, but you can't buy the whole line. And the reason we did that is because obviously there's some cannibalization that happens when you decide to have retail stores and then also have your product available in, say, the local grocery store or, you know, the local sort of deli or whatever. And we found our way into a lot of hotels, a lot of restaurants. We just struck up a relationship with a national grocery store chain. And they're interested in the lemonades. And so...
[00:11:48] John Craven: I guess it's- These people are going to think the store's being robbed here. I know. They can hear all the sirens in the background. Sirens and blenders and- That's Santa Monica for you on a busy street, right? That's right.
[00:11:57] Alex Matthews: You're right. So, you know, I think that the Lemonades for us was a way for us to differentiate from the store and offer something new and fresh and exciting and, you know, really get customers a taste of something else that you cannot buy in a store. I mean, we really see the stores as like the halo effect of the brand. When you come into a store, it's like the ultimate experience. And you're served by someone that really knows their stuff. And so, whereas when you pick it up in a grocery store or in a deli or whatever, then obviously you're getting the same product in terms of the cold-pressed juices, but the lemonade is really something new. And so, it's a different kind of experience.
[00:12:44] John Craven: I guess I think more or less Southern California Pizza Kitchen and maybe an ice cream brand that has ice cream shops. Yeah, like Coolhaus or one of those. Yeah. Which is, you know, it's an interesting model for juice for sure. You know, I guess outside of just the products that you're competing with in the space, there's now, I guess, other, you know, technology, if you want to call it that. Things like the Juicero machine, or even, you know, for retail establishments, like the new Goodnature countertop, which is going to make, you know, For people who aren't familiar with it, it's going to make cold-pressed juice available in tons of places, right? How does stuff like that potentially impact what you're doing? I mean, it's really an interesting category in that it's almost like coming at you from every direction, right? Right.
[00:13:33] Alex Matthews: No, totally. I think some people are online shoppers and some people aren't. I think that people's habits are very sort of instinctual, you know, when it comes to, for instance, buying coffee. You know, everyone probably has a coffee maker at home, whether it's a brewer or an espresso machine, depending on how adventurous you are. Although an espresso, I guess, has dumbed that down for everyone. But you still go to the coffee shop and buy a coffee. And it's because the local barista might be a funny guy, or it might be that you want to get out of the house, or it might be that it's part of your daily ritual is to go to the coffee shop on your way to work. And I don't think that's ever going to change. People are still going to want to. Otherwise, you turn into this insular, very solo-ish way of life. And I just don't think that that's humanistic. I think people like interaction, they want to talk to people, they want to find out more than is on the packet. And so I think that with the couple of concepts you mentioned, technologically and from a conceptually incredible leaps forward and definitely disrupting the space. I think that's great. I think the more people that know about cold-pressed juice, the better. But I just don't think that's going to ever affect people wanting to come and have that social interaction with two or three of their friends. I just struggle to bite off on the fact that you'd invite me over to your house, John, for a coffee made in a coffee brewer. I think we'd probably more likely meet at a coffee shop.
[00:15:13] John Craven: Probably, but I think that's also an interesting thing to consider, though, in that the one thing that a coffee shop has, every coffee shop has, whereas not every juice shop has, and including yours, is that sensory experience of the smell of coffee being made, which you guys, not a knock, but truth, you guys don't make the juice. in-house, there's some smell of food being prepared, smoothies and stuff like that, but other people that you compete with, there's coolers, right? There's nothing being made in the store. And coffee also has caffeine, right? So I guess it's more, I'm going to put this in question form, what is it that you think really attracts people to juice at this point? I mean, coffee has that ritual, it has caffeine, people don't question that, but there's a lot of stuff that sort of thrown around about juice and its nutritional benefits. I think there was even a headline I was hating on on Twitter recently that said, you know, juice is BS, basically. You know, do you get people like that that sort of come up to you and say, hey, this is all BS? Like, what's the answer to, is juice healthy, you know?
[00:16:16] Alex Matthews: Right. Yeah, there's a few questions wrapped up there. Without getting nerdy on science or anything. I think to sort of box off the coffee thing, I mean, there's no doubt that we've had our eye on the coffee space for a while.
[00:16:31] John Craven: Sure.
[00:16:32] Alex Matthews: And we have now real coffee programs happening in our stores. So the smell of the grinder and the smell of kind of, you know, the coffee being made and brewed. Makes you want coffee. It makes you want coffee, yeah. You talking about it makes me want coffee. And so, you know, in our stores, because we make our juices centrally every day and distribute them to our stores every night, you don't get those sort of smells you do if you were to walk into our facility in downtown LA. But, you know, we make the smoothies in-house and then obviously people have poured shots here and We're actually at the end of this month introducing seven new items onto our menu. We're six new juices and also a soup, which is actually a pea avocado soup. It's delicious. So we will be serving that in the store. So we're introducing some new items. Um, but you know, with the, with the coffee and juice relationship, we feel like there's a lot of, a lot of upside there, a lot of future potential. But, you know, I think, you know, on the other question about, um, what was your other question?
[00:17:41] John Craven: My other question was just about the, you know, whole nutrition aspect of juice.
[00:17:45] Alex Matthews: No, totally. So one of the things that we've noticed, certainly in the last five months, people are not cleansing as much as they used to. January, typically in our industry, is a huge bump in sales. New Year's resolutions, of course. And then, you know, that kind of wears off. And then when the spring comes, it's festival season and we see a bump again, and then that wears off. And then, you know, you've got, you know, post Thanksgiving. And so there are sort of peaks and troughs throughout the year. But the one trend we've seen is that the cleanse sales have changed. And so what we've seen happen is people are now buying cartons of their favorite juices. and they're buying them and taking them home and having them in the fridge and just enjoying them like a carton of their favorite juices, as opposed to buying three, five-day cleanses. Certainly our online store, we've seen a shift towards people subscribing to our juice cartons and just basically ordering the juices that they like the most and having them delivered to their house every Monday morning. Um, so I think from a sort of a nutritional perspective, the juice is still the same juice. It's not changed. Um, but I think the way that people are using it, um, is changed too. I think people want to drink Juice Served day. Like they do coffee. Um, I, I no longer think that the, the cleanse fat is at the dizzy heights. It used to be. Um, so I think that's kind of, and that's probably a good thing, right? No, I agree. I mean, we've never been, you know, when you look at a lot of the other sort of options out there, it's always been about selling cleanses. And we've never been a big sort of cleanse push kind of company. Of course, we do offer cleanses. We still offer cleanses today and we'll probably sell a cleanse today. In fact, I think this guy in here is about to buy a cleanse. Perfect timing. But it's not something that we've ever pushed. We really want people just to come every day. Come every day, grab a juice that was made that night, and maybe a cup of the other products. But it's more about daily use, and I think that's more important to us.
[00:19:58] John Craven: So that's a good segue to my final question. So you were talking earlier about, you know, a juicery on, on every corner. Where do you see this going and say like five or 10 years? I mean, we're kind of at a point where we're, you know, seeing cold press juice like everywhere. I mean, do you see this as like a ubiquitous product that I don't know, it was like a Coke or a bottle of water or what's a real sort of like, again, five or 10 year view into this? And is it a fad?
[00:20:24] Alex Matthews: Well, let me answer that first. No, it's not. I don't think cold-pressed juice is a fad. I think that what cold-pressed juice has done is raise the bar on the kind of juice that people are drinking. I think people who are somewhat conscious about what they're putting in their bodies, which a lot of people are now, Certainly, obviously, in the liberal states here. But globally, I mean, this isn't isolated to the United States. Cold-pressed juice bars are popping up in anywhere you can think of, Tokyo, London, Paris, Berlin. And they're just getting going there. So you're right. This is the epicenter of that trend. And I think what it means is that in three to five years time, those products will still exist. They'll still be available. But I think the retail play for that, this kind of very purist form of it that exists today will probably be different. And I think that there'll be more selection, of higher quality products that complement the juices, as opposed to just a straight pure play, cold-pressed juice, and that's all that there is to offer. I also as well predict that the industry has been very, up to this point, has been very regionalized. Um, if you think, you know, the other sort of large juice player from Los Angeles, um, is now only just selling in New York city. And so that's kind of interesting that there hasn't been a truly national, um, cold press juice brands that exist even today. So that in it, that in itself, I think is still indication that three to five years is still a very, you know, long way to go.
[00:22:11] John Craven: Awesome. All right. Well, thank you very much, Alex, for your time. I guess we'll talk to you again soon. Okay. Thanks for having me. And that's another episode of our wonderful BevNET podcast here. If you have any feedback or stuff you want to hear in the future, please email us at news at BevNET.com. So thanks for listening.
