Manav Shital and Niti Agrawal

Juice Lounge was incepted on May 2005 by the founders Manav Shital and Niti Agrawal. The idea was evaluated and planned initially for a year which included feasibility, tasting and business plans. Vertigo India Food and Beverages started with its brand Juice Lounge outlet to see the viability and liking for the products the brand by our customers. Juice Lounge is a juice bar health caf concept. Within three years from inception and a workforce of no more than five people, purely through word of mouth of our unique juices and quality, Juice Lounge expanded overseas as well as most of the major cities in India. We are now operational more than 30 cities in India Abroad.

Q. What inspired Juice Lounge to take the franchise route to expand business?

The concept was developed as both of us are world travelers and we travelled abroad a lot and found that most people food concepts out there were very health centric. On the contrary in India we dont have any joints which provide healthy option for food; this is how the concept of Juice Lounge was born. The reasons for franchise route for expansion were to expand and take the brand to the masses. The brand has been successful and yielded good returns so Franchising was the only way to penetrate the new markets by partnering with local people who have good local knowledge. Juice Lounge has expanded overseas as well as most of the major cities in India. We started franchising in 2009 as we had the right model and brand that could give franchisees the desired returns they wanted with bare minimum investments.

Q. Which franchise module works along with your brand?

We have loads of young entrepreneur fresher who were keen to take franchisee route and all the 3 models we have suit our brand as we ourselves are innovative and have burning desire to grow and expand as our young and enthusiast franchisee.

If we talk about ease in setup operations than Kiosk OTC are turn-key options.

The investment depends on the model of our outlets. If one is looking at a Kiosk or OTC model it requires an investment of 5 to 9 lacs (50 – 250 sq feet) depending on the menu. Lounge model would require an investment of around 8 to 12 lacs (300 – 800 sq feet).

Q. What is your marketing and sales strategy?

Mostly in the earlier years we have targeted college festivals for the brand promotions. We are now looking at other venues for promotional campaign like the news articles, magazines related to the youth.

As for sales strategy, we are seeing 20% increase in sales every year and we are doing regular promotions to keep our customers coming again and again. We had JUICY MUSIC CD as give away at our outlet for our regular customers. Our JL Privilege card is being launched that is a Royalty base program for our esteemed customers.

Q. What kind of training and support a franchisee would get when partnering with you?

For all the franchise, we provide them thorough training before opening which is onsite. We are also providing them manuals, which gives them every minute details of our business and helps them in day to day running of our outlets. We also have onsite training of the entire staff with our exclusive chef for the initial opening period. So we nearly eliminate most of the challenges which are faced by a franchise in F B Industry. Support is provided right from finalizing a place to its designing, fabrication, installation, and training and even on everyday ongoing business.

Q. How many outlets do you have presently? Whats your approach for market presence in India?

We are currently in more than 30 cities with 40 plus stores in India Abroad.

The future plans in regards to India expansion are to penetrate the Tier II III cities as well within India, which has loads of potential. The investment is also quite reasonable starting from 5 lacs to 9 lacs for a kiosk or an OTC.

Q. What are the future plans of ““Juice Lounge”?

The outlet in Doha has been a success story and it has created a lot of feel good factor for the brand in the international circuit. We are now focusing to expand with a similar model in the Asian market. We might look at around 4 to 5 international outlets in the coming year. Vertigo India Food Beverages has done exclusive association with investors to grow the brand Juice Lounge in the Middle East and the Far East Asia.

In the next few years, we are looking at around opening more than 200 stores spread across India other countries around the world. I personally feel that the F B business has great potential. The growth would be phenomenal and the company is likely to expand 10 folds in the coming few years.

Manav Shital Niti Agrawal

Vertigo India Food Beverages