Top Juice to deliver top of the line juices across Australia
Top man at Top Juice Barry Barber, General Manager, talks to QSR Media about store openings, the result of the Hornsby's Good Apples campaign and the brand's expansion plans.
QSR MEDIA: What’s new at Top Juice?
BARBER: Between now and the end of the year Top Juice has 6 stores opening across New South Wales.
Top Juice has extensive plans to expand across additional store locations over the next year with a strong focus on continuing the brand’s commitment to our fresh health food offering, while developing our franchise program. As the months start to get warmer Top Juice will be introducing a number of new and exotic summer fruits to the menu, including figs to our smoothies, and jackfruit, dragonfruit, longan, and lychees in our fruit salads.
Over the next month Top Juice will have a number of new stores opening across the Sydney region including Central Park, Broadway, Top Ryde, and Penrith, with DFO Homebush and Macarthur opening in early December.
QSR MEDIA: What kind of response did you get from your Hornsby’s Good Apples campaign?
BARBER: The response from the Hornsby Good Apples campaign was been overwhelming! We partnered with the Hornsby Advocate to search for a local ‘Good Apple’ – someone that has contributed to the community in a positive way.
Not only has this campaign increased local awareness of the new Top Juice Hornsby store, but it was a great exercise to band the community together for a good cause.
QSR MEDIA: With the opening of your Westfield Hornsby store last month, how has the store been faring in its first month?
BARBER: Even prior to opening the new Top Juice Hornsby store, we had a group of loyal fans of the brand, who had visited another of our stores on their way to work, or on the weekend. So, the excitement around the Hornby opening was strong and this has continued on throughout the first month of trading. We’ve been extremely busy and had such a positive response from our customers. It looks like the new store at Westfield Hornsby has lived up to their waited expectations!
QSR MEDIA: What are the brand’s plans in furthering its expansion in Australia?
BARBER: Top Juice has plans for expansion throughout Australia and already has a significant presence across Sydney.
Over the last year alone, Top Juice has opened 7 suburban stores and by the start of 2014, we are aiming to launch stores across regional NSW, including the Illawarra, Newcastle and Canberra.
We are looking to further expand into Melbourne and would like to have our fresh menu available to our friends in Queensland by 2015.
QSR MEDIA: Do you have plans of exploring locations outside of the country?
BARBER: At this stage, Top Juice’s priority is to provide all Australians with our unique brand of delicious, healthy and convenient food and beverages.
QSR MEDIA: What are the popular trends nowadays in the beverage industry?
BARBER: Aussies are becoming more educated on the importance of a diet filled with fresh, natural and quality produce – people are looking for an alternative to traditional processed fast food. So Top Juice is in the perfect position to provide customers with quick, tasty and healthy products. We are constantly looking for new trends, innovations and super-foods in the industry – liaising with our farmers and growers to provide our customers with the best!
QSR MEDIA: What innovations is the brand gearing up for?
BARBER: Top Juice is committed to staying ahead of the trends with our ever-evolving menu of unique and often hard-to-find produce. We pride ourselves on using seasonal ingredients, so that customers only get the freshest ingredients and not only do we stock the fruits and vegetables that everyone knows and loves, but we source out the more exotic ingredients like, dragon fruit, paw paw, pomegranates and star fruit.
For example, kale is an ingredient which has become a popular addition to the Australian diet because of its detoxifying and nutritious properties. Our challenge at Top Juice was to include kale as a key ingredient in one of our juices, without compromising on taste. The result was the Slim Grin – a blend of kale, spinach, celery and a splash of apple juice, which is now one of our top sellers!
Pomegranate is another of our current ingredients that is not commonly found, especially amongst shopping centre food court offers. At Top Juice, we feature fresh pomegranate in both salads and juices, and our ability to include these premium, exotic fruits and vegetable in our menu gives us something different to our competitors – and we can give our customers both health benefits and great taste from our product.
QSR MEDIA: Any other comments?
BARBER: With the continued steady growth of the Top Juice brand, we are on the lookout for people who would be interested in joining Top Juice as franchise partners, owning and operating their own store. Our franchise program is well underway and we are searching for customer focussed, business savvy, health conscious, passionate people who are interested in growing with the brand.
