Organic cold-pressed juices and detox cleanses for the UK market.
At The Source we we’ve developed a range of 100% organic cold-pressed juices and detox cleanse programmes, which capitalises on the growth in consumer demand for organic, unprocessed, raw juices.
We press our juices using state-of-the-art cold-pressing machines resulting in a product with more nutrient content than regular juice. The product is cold-pasteurised with High Pressure Processing (HPP) technology which extends the shelf-life while retaining its superior taste and nutritional value. We use exclusively 100% organic fruits and vegetables and locally sourced ingredients whenever possible, to ensure each element is of the highest quality.
After launching our seven flavour range at the Taste of London festival last summer and trading through 20+ independent retailers throughout London, we are now ready to take The Source nationwide!
At The Source, our mission is to make healthy delicious for everyone by using the highest quality ingredients and unique recipes.
All of our cold-pressed juices are designed to perform a specific function for your body, whether it be boosting immunity or promoting glowing skin. Equally important, while they are beneficial to your health, they are also incredibly tasty. We know that some juices, however good for you they may be, are harder to swallow than cough syrup. Being healthy should not be a chore, it should be enjoyable, which is why we made each juice as delicious as it is nutritious.
At The Source, we want to make healthy juices more widely available in the UK. We want to make the concept of juicing- often a costly, time-consuming and messy experience- more accessible by partnering with retail stores throughout the country. Consumers should have healthier options available to them wherever they are making a purchase- be it a supermarket, a health store, a local cafe or a corporate canteen. Health is wealth and we are working hard to make that consumer choice more attainable.
The business officially launched at the Taste of London in Regents Park in June 2014. Since then, we have been able to perfect the product, establish demand, create a brand, grow a community and build a local industry network and are now in a position to expand across the UK and Europe:
– Currently stocking at ~20 independent stores across London
– Launched eCommerce store for direct sales
– Validated consumer demand at a premium price point
– Obtained licenses and testing certifications
– Finalised product branding and labeling
– Finalising competitively priced product line for the wider market
The Source is well positioned to become a leading cold-pressed juice brand to go nationwide and also look to expand internationally. With support from experts in the nutrition and cold-pressed juice sectors globally, we are developing a business that we’re extremely excited about.
The Source has a two tier business model which includes wholesale distribution and direct to consumer online sales through its own website.
(1) Wholesale distribution:
The Source has established wholesale merchant relationships with key opinion-making stores and brands across Central London. The target retailer in the first phase of the business has been independent coffee shops, gyms, yoga studios, health and wellness clinics, spas, concierge services and corporates.
We are currently in conversations with a large iconic Oxford street department store and a worldwide renowned multi-store supermarket. We plan to develop this side of the business with distribution partners, through UK supermarket chains and through international partnerships. The Source’s product line would meet a growing consumer demand for healthier drink options and would introduce the wider UK market to organic cold pressed juices with no additives.
(2) Online Direct to Consumer:
The online direct to consumer model is driven by our eCommerce store: www.TheSourceJuice.com. Customers place orders through the website, pay in advance, and select a date for delivery. The Source has invested in a second generation website which has been designed in consultation with a SEO expert in order to maximize organic traffic from search engines and drive sales.
Our direct to consumer strategy targets various segments of the market; from casual consumers, to experienced juicers looking for a detox cleanse programme, to employees starting a group juicing plan at the workplace. The website is supplemented with an active social media presence including regular articles on The Source’s blog (http://blog.thesourcejuice.com) and editorial /post appearances on popular external blogs.
The proceeds would be used on the following main segments.
– Production Optimization / Equipment: We will be investing in a higher-capacity commercial juicing machinery to increase our production efficiency. Estimated investment of £25k.
– Business Development team: Allocating £25k to cover basic salary of Business Development Director for 10 months while the business ramps up.
– Marketing and Promotion: We are developing a comprehensive marketing strategy which will include online advertising, sponsoring of targeted events, in-store sampling and promotion, PR, social media engagement, and point of sales materials. Estimated costs of £50k over 12 months.
– Online Mobile Store: We have just launched our new eCommerce web store. We will be optimising the site over time investing in our SEO strategy and finalizing the mobile responsive version of the site with delivery and inventory management tools integrated on the back-end to drive efficiencies.
Estimated investment: £20k.
REWARDS:
£5,000 – Name and help us create a new summer juice
£2,500 – 1 month juice supply (4 x 6 packs)
£1,250 – Professional juice making experience – juice with us for 1 day
£750 – Personalized 3 day juice cleanse
£500 – Free 2 day juice cleanse and discount code (25% discount)
£250 – 6 pack of juices and 3 month discount code (20%)
£150 – 3 free juices and hall of fame
£25-£100 – Addition to our website hall of fame
We are targeting the UK market; beginning with London, where we’ve been developing a retail presence and an online community of followers over the past year.
Given our research supporting an increased appetite for healthy / natural / unprocessed drinks, and taking into account our premium positioning relative to incumbent soft-drink alternatives – especially the fruit juice and fruit smoothies categories – our target demographic are health conscious men and women aged 25-45, with medium to high disposable income.
Our research suggest that there is an increased appetite for healthy, natural and unprocessed food & drinks in the UK. According to Horizon’s Quick Bite report, 41% of diners are influenced by health and lifestyle factors when choosing where to eat out. The trend is most prominent among diners aged 35-44 and 18-24. In addition, sales of organic products in the UK grew by 2.8% in 2013, with sales of organic vegetables increasing by 3.4%. The UK organic market is now worth £1.7bn in annual sales. Moreover, there’s a rising number of vegan and vegetarians among Brits: 1 in 8 British adults has gone vegetarian as of 2014.
We believe consumers in the UK are increasingly aware of the impact of sugar on health outcomes and its links to diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Government campaigns, such as Give Up Loving Pop, intend to educate consumers on the risks of regular consumption of sugary drinks such as standard fruit juice, cola and energy drinks, and over time will increase the search for healthier soft drink alternatives. Thus, we are predicting the UK cold-pressed juice market will be in full boom in 2-3 years time.
The cold-pressed juice category has exploded in the US in recent years with brands like BluePrint and Suja dominating wholesale channels. Industry leaders like Suja are seeing annual sales figures north of $50m after 3 years in operation. Retail juice bars are also on the rise in the US. In NYC alone, there are 252 cold-pressed shops from brands like JuicePress and Organic Avenue.
We believe that the rise of the cold-pressed juice segment is correlated with a shift in consumer preference towards healthier food and drink options and increased emphasis on nutrition in preventing and treating illnesses. Healthier habits along with yoga and vegetarianism seem to have been absorbed by the mainstream culture. As a result, cold-pressed juice in cities like New York is no longer connected to fad dieting but is likely to be seen as part of a healthy lifestyle.
We believe that a similar shift in consumer preferences towards healthier alternatives will become prevalent in the UK market over the next few years.
The next phase of The Source’s growth would come through wholesale partnerships with major retailers and supermarkets in the UK. Together with our industry specialists we conservatively estimate that we could be in 200 supermarket stores by the end of 2015, 500 stores by the end of 2016 and 700 stores in 2017.
We are already in discussions with a chilled-product distributor and one of the major premium supermarket chains. As part of these conversations, The Source is developing a second, competitively priced, product line, which could be ready for large scale production in the second half of 2015. We have also ensured that all of our products, branding and labeling claims meet all regulatory and the highest quality standards.
At The Source, we believe that building an engaged community around our company and the brand is extremely important. We will continue to focus on maintaining an active social media presence, producing original content through our blog and other channels, and engaging directly with our customers through events and partnerships.
We will also continue to serve our direct customers via our eCommerce site and through partner platforms such as online delivery sites. The Source also has active relationships with health and wellness distribution networks such as gyms, yoga studios, spas and corporates, which helps us reach our target customers.
We believe the organic cold-pressed juice market in the UK is still in its early adopter growth phase.
Anticipating wider cold-pressed juice adoption and a similar rush as in the US, we found a number of companies have launched cold-pressed juice lines in London over the past couple of years: E.g. Plenish, Radiance Cleanse, Press Co, Bobo’s Juicery, among others.
While most companies in the space seem to be in the startup phase, they are helping to educate the market on the superiority of the cold-pressed juicing method, adjusting consumer price expectations upwards to a premium relative to the less healthy soft drink alternatives (including all the sugar packed juices available today).
Despite the recent entry of a number of cold-pressed juice brands into the London market, most have a product with a maximum shelf life of 3 days. This could explain limited penetration of the wholesale channels to-date and presents an attractive opportunity for The Source.
Learning from the US experience we are not shy of competition and have tested our product head to head with online and local cold pressed juice competitors and can confidently say that we could outperform the competition on deliciously tasting healthy juices.