Starbucks<\/a> had also just opened their first New York City locations, so the idea of a beverage-only business was very foreign to people. And I think a blessing for our company was that we opened in the theater district, and the Broadway community and the artists and performers totally embraced us. They needed fuel. It was the right location at the right time.\u00a0<\/p>\nSo even before the boom, having artists that were very much attuned to their health and wellbeing\u2014I was fortunate that a lot of those performers told me what they wanted. The menu really was formalized in those years when I was in the store and just listening to people.<\/p>\n
The 2009 juice boom was about the juice cleanse. Green juice and kale and all of that was the second wave. Initially, people went crazy over a juice cleanse. And I had a little store on 72nd Street, which was next door to what would become the first SoulCycle. They wanted to do a soul cleanse, so we worked on that together. They were about to be partnering with Equinox. And we partnered with Salma Hayek for the cleanse, which was also like, the greatest thing because we had a huge celebrity. That was how we sort of inserted ourselves into the juice trend. That was sort of our entry into that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I made all the mistakes. The first few years you were under the radar, and I don\u2019t have that many customers. So all the mistakes you can make, I made. I also learned how to do everything in the store. I learned what recipes worked, I learned what didn\u2019t. But most importantly, I learned how to standardize the business. I had a great team and I had advisors come in and teach me. So by the time I was ready to start expanding and opening quicker, and having more money to build more expensive stores, I had it down and I knew how to train people and I knew how to standardize. So I was in a good space; all those years were like my education in the juice business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tell me about two mistakes you made.<\/strong><\/p>\nI could tell you about 100\u2014pick your favorites. I had a lot of luck introducing superfruits in the beginning. Like I mentioned, we were the first to bring Sambazon into the city. I heard mangosteen was going to be allowed into the U.S.; at that time, it was banned. So it had a very romantic, sexy vibe to it. <\/p>\n
I had a lot of hustle. I called a farm in Southeast Asia, and bought mangosteen. We got a lot of attention for that, so I was feeling myself a little bit. A farm had reached out to us about aronia berries, and I thought aronia berries would be the next big thing. We bought an entire crop of aronia berries at great expense, and no one could have cared less about aronia berries. We couldn\u2019t give them away. <\/p>\n
And then a year later, we did a huge deal with jackfruit\u2014nobody cared, not good. That kind of ended my superfood sleuthing, and my desire to find and introduce fruits. Big mistakes come when you\u2019re feeling yourself, and you\u2019re on a roll and you think you can keep going.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think you can build a health regimen by following trends. And I don\u2019t think you can build a strong business based on trends. So I never thought of building this business as a trend. There have been so many businesses from out of state coming and opening in New York and closing. It\u2019s just sort of the natural trajectory of juice. I think the ones that had loyalty and were authentic\u2014meaning us\u2014kept their customers. I think the ones that didn\u2019t were sort of fly-by-night and based on a trend, and we saw them close.<\/p>\n
So how does your store thrive in a precarious environment?<\/strong><\/p>\nI asked myself that a lot after COVID, because it was a tough couple of years. We\u2019d spent a tremendous amount of money on corporate stores in office areas. Our top five stores all had huge opening costs and a big fat rent every month. Obviously, those were the stores that took the biggest dip for us, which really affected us during COVID and thereafter. But we did see last year, the numbers came back nicely, and we hit where we were in 2019. And this year, year-to-date, our same-store sales are up 8%. For a business that\u2019s 25 years old, it\u2019s extremely gratifying. I think again, authenticity, and just being constantly evolving, and offering people what they want and a good quality product\u2014that\u2019s the key.<\/p>\n
What keeps you New York-centric?<\/strong><\/p>\nI know the market really well. I\u2019ve been here over 30 years; I feel really comfortable here. I know our customer. That\u2019s where I want to be; that\u2019s my decision. I\u2019ve ventured out before and looked in other markets, and actually signed leases in other markets, but I always pulled back at the 11th hour. I stepped into Los Angeles for a bit in 2019, and signed a couple of leases, but I pulled out before we did construction, and I was so grateful to have done that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tough to open three or four stores in a big market like Los Angeles, just like I think it\u2019s tough for competitors to come from out of state and try to take on the New York City market. Every fast-casual restaurant surviving in New York City is a badge of honor. It\u2019s a real struggle. I think people don\u2019t know what to expect. There\u2019s high rent, and I think a New York City customer is very sophisticated. I\u2019ve seen so many juice concepts come here and find that it\u2019s really tough to make it. And I thought the same for us in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
To what do you attribute your lasting success?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m fully engaged, I\u2019m attentive, and most of the people that run the company have been with me for over 10 years. We\u2019ve been in a relationship with our customer for 25 years. Like any relationship, it has to grow, and you have to pay attention to it. Sometimes we put things out there that don\u2019t work, but we\u2019re always trying, evolving and changing. And it\u2019s a long-term relationship with New York, and we\u2019re very respectful and mindful of that.<\/p>\n
Is there a certain financial result or number of store closures or employee turnover or height of margins that would make you reconsider taking VC money?<\/strong><\/p>\nI would, if the deal were right. I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m not above that. I definitely would. I just don\u2019t think I\u2019m the person that\u2019s going to go and open 300 Juice Generations in strip malls and airports. It\u2019s not my thing. But I mean, if I think it\u2019s the right opportunity\u2026.<\/p>\n
Jamba Juice still exists. I think they\u2019re the airport. That\u2019s their main station. When I was still wearing my apron, and had three little locations, Jamba Juice arrived, and it was terrifying. They took massive real estate; they opened like 15 huge stores.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brands have gotten bolder and bolder. Many brands come in\u2014we have them open directly beside us, if you could believe it. But you see brands that just stop evolving and listening to what customers want. That\u2019s the danger that large brands face: When you grow so big, and you don\u2019t listen to your customer, you lose your way and lose your values. That\u2019s what I don\u2019t want to have happen.<\/p>\n
How does the Ozempic craze figure into your business?<\/strong><\/p>\nI don\u2019t think you can build a healthy lifestyle on a trend. And like I said, I didn\u2019t build a healthy business based on a trend. So I think people always come back to something that works, something that\u2019s healthy. And I think good nutrition is fundamental to anyone\u2019s health regimen. And I think that\u2019s what we offer\u2014something delicious and healthy. That\u2019s what I\u2019d say about trends in general.<\/p>\n
I also don\u2019t think it\u2019s been around long enough to know yet if people are using these drugs and then eating Big Macs in their car. You have to hope and assume that people who are so interested in losing weight think of this as a lifestyle, not like \u2018I\u2019m going to have a smoothie, and I\u2019m going to be skinny tomorrow.\u2019 That\u2019s obviously not the case, so you have to hope that one goes with the other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I also think the perception that our customer base is people who want to be thin is inaccurate. That\u2019s not our customer base. My main mission for the last 25 years has been to make juice accessible to everybody. I think when I\u2019m in a really busy store, I see that our customer is everyone: cab drivers. People walking into work. Young moms. Yoga fans. Hedge fund guys on their break. It\u2019s a real cross-section, and I don\u2019t want to be an elite business that caters to one demographic. I think so many people are our customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Have you or will you soon reach a natural ceiling when you no longer feel the need to expand? And if so, what happens then?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere\u2019s so much room for us to expand in New York\u2014in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Long Island. We\u2019re looking for space in New Jersey now. When things come about that are interesting, and that I connect with, and seem like they tell a great story for the brand, I\u2019m in. I don\u2019t ever want to fit a cookie-cutter mold. That\u2019s what I personally want to avoid. If somebody else wants to step in and help with that, perhaps we would consider it, but it\u2019s just not my thing. As a business owner, as a creator, it\u2019s just not my interest. I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m totally averse to it. We just have to be right, and I\u2019ve had a lot of talks, but it hasn\u2019t been right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Did you consider closing the doors of low-performing stores during the pandemic?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nNever even when they were not bringing in any business. Never. Because that was my money. I funded it. When it\u2019s your own money that you\u2019re putting in the stores, it\u2019s serious. We spent a lot of money to build those stores out. I never ever thought of closing them, ever. It\u2019s so personal to me. It\u2019s something I spent years of my life on. Oftentimes, the store took two and a half years to build. So it becomes very personal when you spend that much time building it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What were you doing for work when you were 25?<\/strong><\/p>\nI was teaching swimming lessons full-time. I was a competitive swimmer in my youth. It was the only thing I knew what to do.<\/p>\n
How did you refuel after swimming?<\/strong><\/p>\nSleep. If you\u2019re in the water with children for 10 hours a day, and your back itches, and your hair is all scratchy because of chlorine, you would go home and go to bed. I worked seven<\/p>\n
days a week, and I didn\u2019t have a health regimen at that time. I was in the pool all day\u2014very physical. And I saved every single penny, until I had $120,000. That\u2019s how I opened Juice Generation in Hell\u2019s Kitchen.<\/p>\n
How old were you when you opened that first location?<\/strong><\/p>\nI was 27.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What mistake do today\u2019s 27-year-old entrepreneurs make that makes you want to shake them by the shoulders?<\/strong><\/p>\nThey try to scale immediately. Learn your business, know how to do everything. Lead people. If I didn\u2019t know how to make the juice. I feel I would feel like a fraud here. They have to know that anything that they\u2019ve done. I\u2019ve done that. I\u2019ve taken out trash, I\u2019ve cleaned bathrooms.\u00a0 I developed the recipes. I can jump on a juicer like everybody else. I\u2019m not as good as they are. But I can.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I worked\u2014you know what I\u2019m saying? I wasn\u2019t a guy with money. I was the guy who had to work because I wasn\u2019t capitalized. So I learned the business. I knew it inside and out. And I knew my customer too, because I was forced to connect to the customer. I was the only guy in the store.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Had Juice Generation not gotten off the ground, what would you have done?<\/strong><\/p>\nI was going to be a partner in a swimming school. And I would probably have some type of swimming business teaching kids how to swim. I taught special needs kids how to swim for 10 years. I loved it, but I had to be on 100%\u2014especially with special needs kids, you can never phone it in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How great would it be if Juice Generation had little stands next to the public pools in New York City?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt would be great. It would be great.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your secret to success?<\/strong><\/p>\nTaking care of myself. I\u2019m really involved and connected to the business. The secret is loving what you do and waking up and wanting to be there and being excited after 25 years. That doesn\u2019t happen by accident. I have to work to connect and surround myself with good people who are like-minded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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