The booming smoothie market is facing a shake-up with the arrival of a rapidly expanding Australian juice chain.
Boost Juice, the fastest growing smoothie business in the southern hemisphere, hopes to conquer Britain under the management of the team behind Millie's Cookies. Richard O'Sullivan and Mario Budwig, who grew the cookies and muffins chain to more than 100 outlets across the country, are turning their attention to a healthier form of indulgence.
Tapping into a growing thirst for healthy snacks, the UK's first Boost Juice opened in Manchester's Trafford Centre this weekend and will be followed by another outlet in Oxford later this week. Boost claims to be Australia's fastest growing retail chain and has been dubbed the Starbucks of the juice world, with more than 30 stores opening each year.
Started in 2000 when Australian mother of three Janine Allis had tired of looking for healthy, takeaway snacks for her young boys, Boost has expanded into Chile, Kuwait, Singapore and Indonesia. It has four other countries on its radar for this year.
In Britain it is being launched into a cut-throat market. Demand for fresh fruit drinks has expanded rapidly in recent years. The UK is already home to 24 multi-site businesses of various sizes. There is also a booming market for in-store smoothies such as Innocent.
Mr O'Sullivan, Boost's UK head, says he is undaunted by what he calls an "absolutely saturated" battleground.
He said: "Everybody is piling into the market and the rents are being driven sky-high. There'll be a consolidation. There are going to be casualties. There'll be a tipping point and that tipping point will be either an acquisition of a competitor or just becoming outright preferred brand by both the consumer and the landlord."
Boost hopes to set itself apart from rival chains such as London-based Crussh with an Australian feel. The business has built its brand on an image of young staff who are encouraged to dance and juggle fruit.
Mr O'Sullivan spent six weeks working behind Boost bars in Australia with his wife and retail director Dawn. The couple have held auditions, rather than interviews, for new staff and the 20 people picked are at a pre-launch smoothie school.
Mr O'Sullivan, 44, and his business partners sold Millie's for a reported £25m in 2003 and he stayed until the start of 2006, taking his time at the chain to just short of 20 years.
He then became involved with Boost on the recommendation of his daughter, who was in Australia on a gap year. "She phoned me and said there's a business here in Australia and it looks like something you've done," he said. A trip to Australia and meetings with Boost's founders followed.
"I had a look at it and loved it," he says. "The reason for taking Boost is really simple: they were going to come to Britain whether you like it or not."
He plans three more bars in Manchester this year and is considering a range of venues from shopping centres to indoor ski slopes.
"Our first six to eight stores are all in different types of environments so we are taking it for a test drive," Mr O'Sullivan said. "If the brand is as popular as we think it will be, the potential is enormous."
