Singing Pig

Basically, since posting original article, I have done some more research into the various franchise options that are available through various smoothie companies [Five J/U smoothie/Alpha Juice etc]. From what I have seen, they all really work on a similar business model. Franchisee pays around £15K and gets:

Their own assigned territory

Training

X 10 sites [franchisor finds 10 outlets [cafes/coffee shops] who will sell the smoothies

X10 Blenders

Initial stock

Point of sale material

Ongoing support

Then the way it works is roughly as follows [in a simplified version!]

Franchisee buys frozen fruit sachets from franchisor at appx £0.50p and sells to retailer for £1.10. Retailer sells finished smoothie for appx £2.50 to £3.25 to customer. Franchisee is responsible for maintaining relationship with retailers/deliveries/collection of monies.

Personally, I am interested but am waiting to speak with a few franchisees directly and would also prefer to partner up with someone on this. I have negotiated 20 sites for the price of 10 with one franchisor. If anyone is interested, please pm me.

If there are any franchisees reading this, then your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

I'm quite interested in this as well but I don't see a reason why I can't just set up a single place and then expand from there / start my own franchise (as the costs of doing so don't seem prohibitive). Sourcing the machines etc is no problem but where would one begin to source the fruit? I'm guessing most of the franchises source from similar / same places?

 I'd be interested in teaming up with someone / chatting to people about this as there seems to be plenty of market opportunity at the moment. Let me know!