Member Article

Cheers! The Juice Executive presses forward with £600,000 sales boost

The national thirst for healthier food and drinks has helped a young entrepreneur more than double her sales over the last twelve months.

26 year-old Alex Auger founded The Juice Executive in 2014 and has just broken the £1m turnover mark after securing a number of new contract manufacturing orders and the acquisition of ‘Radiance Cleanse’.

The Kent-based manufacturer of cold pressed juices and cleansing packages has taken on another eight people to support its expansion and has also been tapping into the expertise of the Manufacturing Growth Programme (MGP) to help with strategy, structure and process flow.

It is already paying off, with the external guidance contributing to a new management structure that frees her up to focus on business development and securing sales.

“Like most people who start their own business, you can sometimes get weighed down in all the detail and trying to do everything yourself,” explained Alex, who came up with the venture after returning from her travels in Indonesia.

“I originally started off in my garage and was dropping samples off to some of the big financial services companies. It kind of snowballed since then and the time was right to put in some better practices that will allow me to concentrate on growth, whilst having a structured approach to securing and developing the best talent.”

She continued: “We’ve just done the figures and we hit £1.01m in 2017, a £600,000 increase on the previous year. This has come from more retailers looking for us to contract manufacture their juices and a desire from independent coffee houses keen to co-brand their own great tasting range of juices. The plan is to grow by another 30% in the coming year.”

Juice Executive, which is based in a purpose equipped unit on Revenge Road in Chatham, produces more than 40 different organic juices, covering turmeric, beetroot and orange and ginger.

It currently manufactures 400,000 bottles every year and these are supplied into brands that are listed on Abel & Cole, Ocado and in a host of UK independent retailers looking to stock healthy and great tasting drinks. The firm’s own brands – Think Press and Radiance - are sold direct to consumers online via their own stores, offering nationwide delivery.

Daren Booth, Manufacturing Growth Manager at MGP, added his support: “Alex is an inspirational young entrepreneur who is passionate about her products, her people, her clients and developing the raw pressed juice sector.

“As part of the work we did, we brought in a specialist that challenged her thinking and provided new ways of managing the business and her own time. We also put her in touch with a manufacturing expert from Locate in Kent, which has resulted in lean manufacturing being introduced and a new layout for the production facility.”

He concluded: “The MGP support has unleashed the company’s full potential and we’re looking forward to helping Alex with future plans to expand and launch new products.”

The Juice Executive is setting its sights on adding a further £300,000 in sales in 2018 and to continue to growth its white label work and support the launch of a co-branded line that could open up an untapped part of the market.

The Manufacturing Growth Programme, which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and delivered by Economic Growth Solutions (EGS), is promising to fill the void left by the Manufacturing Advice Service (MAS) by providing access to specialist assistance to help manufacturers to grow and improve.

This is being achieved through an 18-strong network of experienced manufacturing growth managers, access to industry specialists and the opportunity to apply for an average grant of £1400 and rising to a maximum £3500.

Support can be used for leadership and management, R&D, lean manufacturing, productivity and capacity, quality systems and supply chain development.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .