Funding, Kitchen Aids Santa Ana Juice Bar’s Growth
4 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL
Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com
SEPTEMBER 16, 2013
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RESTAURANTS: Nekter Plans
30 stores total by year-end
of last year, according to Chicago-based Technomic Inc.
The Schulzes are still determining where
nékter fits in the spectrum of juice and beverage
operators, but Schulze said the chain distinguishes itself from other juice purveyors with
its menu of raw, vegan juices and healthy snack
and meal offerings.
“I’m still trying to define what space we are
in,” Schulze said. “Certainly, we’re not a competitor to Jamba Juice. You can get anything
from oatmeal to coffee to tea to juice there. Our
mission statement is to live a healthier
lifestyle.”
By KARI HAMANAKA
Nekter Juice Bar Inc. is set to move this
month into new headquarters, a move that
closely follows the raw juice bar chain’s store
opening at UC Irvine, its 20th location.
The Santa Ana-based company sells raw and
vegan juices and smoothies, along with prebottled juice cleanses and salads. The majority of
its stores are in Southern California, with construction set to begin on the first of three stores
in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The privately held company is riding on juicing’s current popularity and has its sights set on
30 stores operating by year-end and another 70
added to the chain in 2014 and 2015.
Construction on a 15,000-square-foot headquarters and kitchen is under way in Santa Ana,
with Nov. 1 the targeted move-in date. Locations in Huntington Beach are set to open soon.
Juices and smoothies go for $4.75, and most
acai bowls are $6.75.
The company has more than $12 million in
annual sales.
New Financing
New financing announced this year on undisclosed terms by Irvine-based Opus Bank
helped restructure existing debt and fuel
growth. The capital infusion led to a store on
nékter’s website that allows customers to purchase and pay for drinks online.
The company also added four refrigerated delivery trucks to service customers from Los Angeles to San Diego.
Most of its locations are in Southern California, but overnight shipping is available nation-
Steve and Alexis Schulze: had vision to be
Starbucks of juice
wide for the company’s cleanses, which help
rid the body of certain toxins.
The additional capital from Opus should
come in handy while Nekter forgoes the franchise model as it expands.
“We tested a franchise model, and most
stores going forward will be corporate-owned
models unless it’s licensed,” said Chief Executive and cofounder Steve Schulze. “We like
to control the brand, and we have plenty of
money to expand it.”
Most of the current stores are companyowned, with about five franchised to friends
and family who wanted to get involved in the
concept early on, he said.
Schulze said he believes nékter can compete
with other, larger juice bar concepts, such as
Irvine-based LLJ Franchise LLC’s Juice It
Up!, which has about 90 stores and $25 million
in sales. There’s also Emeryville-based Jamba
Juice Co., which had systemwide sales of
about $500 million across 774 stores at the end
Competitors
Competitors have still caught on.
Juice It Up! began installing raw juice bars
last year, part of a new store design paired with
the company’s own expansion.
Infrastructure will be key to Nekter’s growth.
The company’s new headquarters and
kitchen will service existing stores, but once the
company expands to markets such as Arizona,
it will have to develop new kitchens.
“Whether it be Phoenix or Atlanta, we like to
go in with a minimum of three stores, which is
what we need to justify and support the infrastructure and investment it takes for a kitchen,”
Schulze said.
The company crushes, presses, juices and
bottles fruits and vegetable at its kitchens. It
gets the produce from local farmers and buys
organic whenever possible, Schulze said.
Nekter delivers the bottles to stores every
morning before they open. It’s currently producing between 4,000 and 7,000 bottles
weekly.
The new kitchen and headquarters opening
will add about 100 workers to the company’s
existing 425-employee base, Schulze said.
Nekter expects to employ about 600 by the
end of the year.
Schulze started the company with his wife,
Alexis, who holds the chief visionary officer
title, in 2010.
“Neither of us had experience in food and
beverage or [quick-service] except for going to
a restaurant and ordering,” Schulze said.
He has a background in direct marketing, and
Alexis was a preschool and elementary school
teacher.
The learning curve was steep.
Store Manager
Schulze remembered a store manager in the
early days of the nékter in Corona del Mar.
“He was a very good manager, but the cost
of goods were way out of whack,” he said.
It turned out the manager, who had a culinary
background, prepped fruits and vegetables as if
he was at a fine-dining restaurant, cutting off
about 60% of the stalk in some instances,
Schulze said.
“It was something like an extra $10,000 a
month on produce before we figured it out,” he
said.
The Corona del Mar location came second to
the original location on 17th Street in Costa
Mesa, which opened as a passion project for the
Schulzes.
They wanted to create the sort of environment found in coffeehouses but to offer healthier fare.
Inspiration for the Costa Mesa location came
from a local Diedrich Coffee the Schulzes used
to frequent.
“It was a rocking coffee shop 20 years ago,”
Schulze said of the Diedrich. “So Alexis said,
‘What if we became the Starbucks of juice?’
We called the owner, signed a lease a week
later, and opened two months later.” ■