QSR December 2022

FRANCHI S ING

TIM TEBOW MADE A SURPRISE VISIT TO CLEAN JUICE’S “JUICE JAM” THIS YEAR.

But simply, just as the Eckles wanted to make a concept they’d feel good putting on the family table, Tebow felt the same about one he’d open franchises for. “There are a lot of places where you are saying, this is healthy, and they’re putting stuff in it. And I just think it’s really important that you build trust that what you say is accurate,” Tebow says. Landon feels the same, which is why Clean Juice carries the organic banner. It’s an ethos that was never easy to execute and comes at a cost, especially as the brand expanded its menu in recent years to include sandwiches, salads, and wraps. When Clean Juice debuted, it only offered juices, smooth ies, and acai bowls. “But our promise was always we wanted to have something for everyone,” Landon says. “We wanted to be able to cater to somebody like Tim Tebow or cater to some body who comes in and maybe they’ve never eaten healthy in their entire lives.” “What does that mean? Put titles on this stuff,” he adds. “But let’s talk about what does it mean to be certified organic. What happens? What is the grasp? What is the story? And it was a really fun and enlightening conversation that then leads to a lot of conversations, right? Conversations of yeah, sometimes you have to charge more for that because it’s going to cost more to get healthy. We talk about we want to make it as affordable as possible but you’ve also got to keep it as healthy as possible. To do right by people. For us, it never started with ROI—it started with a belief.” Over the years, however, Clean Juice has worked on that profitability plenty. Landon spent years in sales and management in the pharmaceutical industry before moving into a managing partner role at Rose Rock Group, a global investment management firm specializing in Asia spe

cific projects in 2012. He was spending weeks on the road and overseas. Landon stepped back as his family life suffered. The Eckles then moved to Charlotte and launched Clean Juice. Last year, Clean Juice’s average gross sales ( 95 counted units ) clocked in at $570,816. Roughly half met or exceeded the number, with the top 50 percent averaging $684,621. The average gross prof it across those 95 units was $361,315. At 12 corporate locations, average gross sales and prof it were $527,059 and $325,921, respectively. Franchisees: $576,657 and $366,200. It’s all helping the story. When Tebow spoke at Juice Jam, his message was to think about food as a circular opportunity. “Not only can you impact them with the product, but you can impact them with your smile, your kindness, with the way that you serve them, with the way that you care about them,” Tebow says. “And try to back it up with statistics. Statistics on belief. Statistics on loneliness. Statistics on obesity. All of those. When people walk into the store, there’s a lot of people who are hurt ing, who are lonely, who need someone to believe in them, who need encouragement. Right now, when someone walks in you have the opportunity to impact them in more ways than just a bowl or a smoothie or a juice.” Landon says many of Clean Juice’s franchisees arrived with a reverse mindset from much of the industry. They came in buying in and then asked to learn. Tebow adds many he’s met so far aren’t major business groups or portfolio builders. “No, it’s hey, I want to be healthy and then I learned the business model. That’s been pretty cool,” he says. q

DannyKlein is the Editorial Director of QSR magazine. He canbe reachedat dklein@wtwhmedia.com .

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DECEMBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com