Singing Pig

Has anyone heard of The Original Smoothie Company or Smoothie Fresh? Am thinking about investing in one of their franchises and was wondering if anyone has either heard of them or had any expeirence with the sale of smoothies? Any replies would be very much aprpreciated.

Hi, I have a franchise with AlphaJuice which is selling smoothie territories. I was put off by the high prices at the OSC so opted for AlphaJuice which appears to be the same. At least it was when I signed up. I have 8 territories - all machines now sited - will let you know how I get on. So far so good. PS: I'm new here, hi all :)

First of all, thank you for the reply and welcome to the pig that sings!

Looking to purchase a franchise shortly.

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Although I am not interested in a franchise with OSC I have been considering buying some shares in the company & for that reason have been doing some research on the industry. One thing I could say in their favour is that the price they charge per sachet of fruit for the smoothies is quite a bit cheaper than some of the opposition that I have found so it would be reasonable to assume that they are able to generate more profit and /or sell cheaper than these others. They have recently won some big connection in the Middle East & rapidly expanding to many countries so who knows they could become the MacDonalds of the smoothie industry. That would give even greater buying power & greater margins. There appears however to be a lot of competition out there so it's anyones guess how they will go, I am not endorsing or promoting them but just a prospective shareholder. It seems to me there is a lot to look into & the best deal in the long run might come down to more than just the cheapest franchise.

Best of luck.

Is it a requirement to buy your stock direct from OSC ? That would be a pain. Anyway the reason I opted for AlphaJuice over OSC is because of the price and nothing more. They all appear fairly new to the scene, not so sure about the McDonalds comment ....

 

I have only recently been looking at this & must admit I have not looked into the setup to know if a franchisee is bound to use OSC fruit only, it says in the share offer literature that the sites are set up & handed over as a turnkey operation with no management or royalties for the franchisee to pay. As you say they are all new companies (OSC is 1 yr old) & there appears to be a lot of competition so it is hard to forsee which ones will come out on top but I suspect it will be the one that can expand the fastest & get an internationaly recognised brand name that will become the McDonalds or Subway of the smoothie business.

 Just for my research & comparison purposes can you  tell me the  price you can get the ingredients to make the smoothies for, I assume they basically all use preprepared frozen sachets of fruit which is then put through a blender at the point of sale. I know it will vary with type & volume so as an example what price would you expect to pay for  6 boxes of peach/ strawberry sachets with 60 per box & including delivery etc?

 

Dave.

the trouble with smoothie shop franchises as I see it is as follows,a pretty well known franchise operation in a city near me was ticking along nicely until a milk shake bar opened up literally next door,which low and behold sold smoothies too,and undercut next door just to rub salt into the wounds.net result,franchise up for sale.The way I see it almost anyone can get a cut of the smoothie market,for minimal financial entry,cafes,bars,kiosks etc etc,they can all eat into your pie.In the case of the franchised store above,when your rent and rates top 50k before you start,any ME TO imitators taking only a smallish percentage of your sales will often prove terminal.HOWEVER,if you are interested in selling machines,juice etc, as bolt ons to existing cafes etc,then there is probably some short term money to be made.just my opinion for what its worth   

I have looked into this sector and to be completly honest i would skip the franchise and go it alone

the blenders are sold everywhere, so are sachets or ingredient ideas and you can do both smoothies and milkshakes and anything else complementary. 

Do some research and you'll find loads of resources out there which can help you skip the franchise also i never see any advertising from these companies on the TV etc so cant see the added benefit they give you.