Jamba Juice

Jamba, Inc.

Former headquarters in Emeryville, California
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: JMBA
Founded	San Luis Obispo, California, U.S. (1990)
Headquarters	Frisco, Texas, U.S.
Number of locations	849 (in 7 countries)
Key people	Richard Federico (Chairman) David Pace (CEO)
Revenue	US$229.24 million ('13)
Net income	US$2.08 million ('13)
Total assets	US$97.91 million ('13)
Website	www.jambajuice.com

Jamba Juice Company is a restaurant retailer headquartered in Frisco, Texas,^[1] with over 800 locations operating in 26 U.S. states, as well as the Bahamas, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, Taiwan, and South Korea. There are approximately 287 company-owned locations and 517 franchise-operated stores in the United States, in addition to the 45 international stores.

History

A Jamba Juice store in Santa Clara, California

A Jamba Juice store located along the CityWalk in Universal Studios Hollywood

Before the creation of the company, Jamba Juice was a "senior project" completed by Kirk Perron, an avid cyclist and healthy-lifestyle advocate, at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). Jamba Juice was conceived and founded on March 31, 1990 by Perron,^[2] who opened his first store in San Luis Obispo, California. He was joined in the business by three friends: Kevin Peters, Joe Vergara, and Linda Ozawa Olds.^[3] It was incorporated in 1990 as Juice Club, Inc. in San Luis Obispo.^[4][5][6][7]

Jamba Juice acquired all nationwide Zuka Juice, Inc. stores in October 2000.^[8] Zuka Juice was founded in Orem, Utah, by Dave Duffin and also was a prominent smoothie company at the time. Since then, Jamba Juice has expanded to become a well known smoothie chain. The first location in New York was at Columbus Circle and 59th Street in the basement of the Time Warner Center and is part of the Whole Foods Market seating area. Other locations include one south of Union Square, Times Square, Tribeca, and one in the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

On August 14, 2003, Jamba Juice agreed to be acquired by Services Acquisition Corp. International for $265 million. A special purpose acquisition company, Services Acquisition is headed by Steven Berrard, former CEO of Blockbuster Inc. Upon the closing of the transaction, the publicly traded Services Acquisition changed its name to Jamba, Inc.^[9]

In June 2006, Jamba, Inc. announced that it had completed a $35.0 million convertible preferred stock transaction. The convertible preferred stock becomes redeemable by Jamba, Inc. at the election of the purchasers in June 2016 unless converted earlier and includes an 8% annual dividend. The preferred stock is convertible into common shares at a price of $1.15 per share.

The funding was led by a $19.55 million investment by Mistral Equity Partners, a private equity fund focused on consumer products and services companies, with the remaining $15.45 million investment made by a company controlled by the Serruya Family, a successful entrepreneurial Canadian-based family who founded the Yogen Früz frozen yogurt and smoothie chain. “We are very excited about Jamba and the potential growth opportunities available to the company as it extends the brand through licensing and franchising opportunities,” said Andrew Heyer, managing partner of Mistral Equity Partners. “This transaction complements our focus exclusively on investing in consumer businesses with strong management teams that capitalize on emerging demographic or psychographic trends.”

In December 2008, Jamba began a strategic move to transform the company from a smoothie shop to include a line of wraps, sandwiches, salads, and flatbreads.^[10] Jamba currently has over 750 locations in 26 states across the U.S. and a small number of international outlets.

In July 2009, in promoting its new line of products, Jamba Juice was criticized for running an advertising campaign which was described as a "ripoff" of the work of cartoonist David Rees.^[11] The ad campaign looked similar to Rees' "Get Your War On" series. Rees was informed of the Jamba Juice ads by a fan who sent in a letter. Rees stated that "Jamba Juice bit my style, with no credit, and it's kind of disrespectful."^[11]

In May 2016, Jamba Juice announced the move of its corporate headquarters from Emeryville, California to Frisco, Texas, over a 6-month period and affecting 120 employees, citing the high costs of living and of conducting business in the San Francisco Bay Area.^[12][13]

Product range

In December 2007, it was announced that Jamba would be partnering with Nestlé to lend its name to a line of healthy, ready-to-drink beverages under the Jamba brand; they would offer two different products: smoothies and juices.^[14] On December 19, 2008, a press release from Nestle USA and Jamba Juice announced suspension of Jamba ready-to-drink products due to "...challenges...with manufacturing on a consistent basis, resulting in inventory and out-of-stock issues."^[15]

In 2014 Jamba Juice launched its expanded Fresh Juice menu, and began making juices blends to order with fresh ingredients such as kale, beets and ginger.

Innovation Bar

On November 16, 2015, Jamba, Inc. announced the construction of their first concept store,^[17] called the Jamba Juice Innovation Bar. Located in the center of Old Pasadena, the Innovation Bar replaced their nineteenth store,^[16] which was roughly double to triple the size of a typical Jamba Juice store.^[16][18] Alongside the usual serving of smoothies, this location also sold many other foods, including quinoa bowls, artisan hummus toast with vegetables, homemade potato chips, and various vegan foods.^[16] It was also the first location to house a WiFi-enabled dining area where customers can watch as their beverages are prepared, or meet up with other customers.^[19] Matt Kafka, who is the Senior Director of Operations at Jamba, explained it as a "cool and hip place in Southern California".^[16] Inside, the customer is greeted with mirrored wall art with photographs of various fruits, a set of television screens showing various motion video greetings, and what Barbara Bestor, the store architect, explains as "contemporary design".^[16] Jamba opened the Innovation Bar on July 14, 2016, during a ceremonial ribbon cutting at 10:00 am PDT.^[20] In early January 2017, the store was abruptly closed to the public. Jamba has not made any comments relating to the store closure.

See also

• Booster Juice
• Milkshake
• Orange Julius
• Robeks
• Smoothie
• Talbott Teas

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jamba Juice.

• Official website