Is selling freshly pressed orange juice a good business plan?

[dachs]

What do you think? Import cheap organic oranges (ugly, small but free of toxic stuff), press them with a fancy zumex juicer and sell the juice for a reasonable price.

How much would you pay wor .2 ltrs of freshly pressed organic orange juice? :)

[ender]

Opinions on this are much less relevant than actual mathematical analysis.

How much would it cost you to produce .2 ltrs of juice?

[swick]

I think it would be a tough go that would require a ton of research - especially in regards to health and safety regulations.  If you were doing it on a small, local scale you would still need a commercial kitchen but might not have to pasteurize? All commercial "Fresh Squeezed" OJ is required to be pasteurized.

You would also have to balance inventory carefully as fresh juice spoils and/or ferments rather quickly.

Another option is a "Vitamin Bar" which would require a commercial location. I haven't really seen them done in the West - mostly, I think due to health code issues, But it is basically a fresh juice bar where they do everything right in front of you and you can choose your combinations of fresh fruit/veg. Very common in Turkey and the Middle East.

There are little portable food truck type vendors here in Canada that do specifically lemon-aide that go to fairs and things like that.

If your interest in OJ there is a really interesting MarketPlace episode called Orange juice: Juicy Secrets:http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2014-2015/orange-juice-juicy-secrets

[forummm]

The finished product sounds expensive. It takes a lot of oranges to make orange juice.

Is this for a local shop? To distribute to grocers?

The OJ industry is huge and well connected. They have distribution, etc. The bar to entry is somewhat high.

[dachs]

You need like 5 kg for 1 liter.

[forummm]

You need like 5 kg for 1 liter.

Right. So for organics, that's going to run, what, $10 or so? With processing and packaging and distribution and marketing added to that? I could buy 2 liters of organic OJ from any grocery store in the US for about $4.

[Retired To Win]

What do you think? Import cheap organic oranges (ugly, small but free of toxic stuff), press them with a fancy zumex juicer and sell the juice for a reasonable price.

How much would you pay wor .2 ltrs of freshly pressed organic orange juice? :)

Well... what you've presented is a rough business idea, not a business plan.  Have you got one?

[forummm]

Years ago, I used to run a juicing machine years ago at a grocery store.  I was always amazed that it takes a ton of oranges to get a little of OJ.  I think you need to run the numbers, establish your cost, and then see what you would have to charge at, say, a Farmer's Market in order to break even.  How much would the machinery cost?  How much is your time worth?  I could definitely see folks buying fresh, organic OJ at a Farmer's Market.  If you pick the right location, you could probably charge $3-$5/serving, but you'd really have to present it as a differentiated solution.  Unfortunately, you probably won't know until you try.

You could probably set up shop selling your proposed juice, but instead just selling regular store-bought OJ in order to test your pricing and marketing (signage). Then, if you have a paying customer, instead of giving them juice, ask them why they decided to purchase from you at that price, and then pay them a dollar (or give them something else).  That would be cheap market research, and you might be surprised to find out who your actual customers are.  If you really want to get crazy, you could try using different signage and see which is most effective. Anyway, might be a cheap way to test out your business model before you spend money on a juicing machine. Unethical and slightly shady, but cost-effective way to demo your solution.

I like this idea. You could also be less shady and just give them the product free after they answered your question. Still leave the pricing up, but make it free afterwards.

[Dorje]

You need like 5 kg for 1 liter.

I make my own regualrly and 5 kg oranges = 2-3+ liters depending on the quality of oranges, which varies....  A crappy batch of oranges yields very little juice, which could be an issue with running a fresh oj business. On average about 15 lbs makes a gallon, which weighs around 9 lbs.


Anyway... Whole Foods sells fresh oj but they make it every day, I think that would be a requirement. They charge about the same as buying oranges at Costco and doing it yourself. I think you'd have to make money on volume with this business strategy and I seriously doubt it would be easy.

A better idea would be to make "gourmet" juice/veggie blends and sell them for ridiculous prices. OJ is a commodity item, a blended drink with pixie dust would seem like a much easier sell. In fact a place like this just opened in Boulder, CO. The prices looked like $8-9 per drink!!!  That's how to make money, not trying to sell a commodity type product when you don't have the volume.

[thedayisbrave]

Hmmm... it would take a lot more digging and testing to see if this would make a viable business on its own.

But, I will say I am a sucker for fresh squeezed orange juice.  The coffee shops -- heck even the Starbucks -- in Spain when I lived there 5 years ago all sold it and it is literally one of my favorite drinks.  If I remember correctly when I got it from Starbucks it was 4-5 euro for a 16 oz size (in 2010).  SO. GOOD.

[Elderwood17]

"A better idea would be to make "gourmet" juice/veggie blends and sell them for ridiculous prices. OJ is a commodity item, a blended drink with pixie dust would seem like a much easier sell. In fact a place like this just opened in Boulder, CO. The prices looked like $8-9 per drink!!!  That's how to make money, not trying to sell a commodity type product when you don't have the volume. "

I tend to agree with Dorje.

[Ricky]

"A better idea would be to make "gourmet" juice/veggie blends and sell them for ridiculous prices. OJ is a commodity item, a blended drink with pixie dust would seem like a much easier sell. In fact a place like this just opened in Boulder, CO. The prices looked like $8-9 per drink!!!  That's how to make money, not trying to sell a commodity type product when you don't have the volume. "

I tend to agree with Dorje.

+1 Lots of these places popping up.

[dachs]

Thank you for your opinions guys! I was thinking of using this kind of machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTgwLgwZMIY

I would make the juice right before their eyes when they order it :) Maybe they might even choose the oranges they want as a marketing gag. Basically it all depends on how much I'd pay for oranges, especially organic ones seem to be quite expensive.

[swick]

Same idea as the ones they have in Turkey. It really depends on the numbers, location etc. I could see something like this working at fairs and festivals as parents want a "healthier" option and it is fun to watch. Basically, you need an actual business pan.

[forummm]

Just to be honest and blunt (and hopefully helpful). It sounds like you really haven't thought this through. No where near enough for it to be a business. Before you lose actual money at it, you really should have a hard business plan (and idea of selling juice is not a business plan). A business plan is very detailed. In your case the fact that you don't even know how much you could buy organic oranges for says that you have a lot of numbers to work out. My guess is that you can only make this profitable if you can sell drinks for ridiculously high prices--the kind of things we mock here. And the market for that $9 glass of juice is limited because the 50 cent glass of juice is available everywhere. But you should get very hard and detailed numbers for everything--oranges, juicer, rent, utilities, where you're going to locate, etc, before spending a penny anything.

[Thegoblinchief]

Regardless of the financials, I couldn't do it ethically because you'd be contributing to diabetes. Drinking fruit juice is damaging to your health.

[forummm]

Regardless of the financials, I couldn't do it ethically because you'd be contributing to diabetes. Drinking fruit juice is damaging to your health.

Yes, a little known but true fact. It's like drinking Coke but with vitamins in it. Much better to just eat the fruit whole--and only eat a couple pieces of fruit in a day (not 5 kg)  :)

[Dorje]

That's ridiculous imo... whole fruits are a natural food and are much different than refined sugar. Once it's pasteurized I'd agree it's much less different... but it's still nothing like drinking a soda with vitamins added. My body simply doesn't react in the same way to fruit vs refined sugar. Same with alcohol, those saying alcohol = sugar are similarly ridiculous. There's so much ridiculousness in the study of nutrition...

[I'm a red panda]

That's ridiculous imo... whole fruits are a natural food and are much different than refined sugar.

I would say fresh juice is better than a soda, but fruit is better than juice.  Juice removes all the good fiber.


As for a business plan- seems like a terrible one if all you plan on selling is fresh orange juice unless you happen to own a grocery store or a gym where you have a really good distribution plan. Even if you can get supplies for a reasonable price that you could sell it for something competitive with everyone who already does this- how will you find customers?

[Thegoblinchief]

That's ridiculous imo... whole fruits are a natural food and are much different than refined sugar. Once it's pasteurized I'd agree it's much less different... but it's still nothing like drinking a soda with vitamins added. My body simply doesn't react in the same way to fruit vs refined sugar. Same with alcohol, those saying alcohol = sugar are similarly ridiculous. There's so much ridiculousness in the study of nutrition...

Fruit juice != fruit. That's what I was saying. The juice removes all (or most) of the fiber, which is what makes the sugar in the fruit safe to consume from an insulin response perspective.

[forummm]

That's ridiculous imo... whole fruits are a natural food and are much different than refined sugar. Once it's pasteurized I'd agree it's much less different... but it's still nothing like drinking a soda with vitamins added. My body simply doesn't react in the same way to fruit vs refined sugar. Same with alcohol, those saying alcohol = sugar are similarly ridiculous. There's so much ridiculousness in the study of nutrition...

Fruit juice != fruit. That's what I was saying. The juice removes all (or most) of the fiber, which is what makes the sugar in the fruit safe to consume from an insulin response perspective.

Apple juice is literally just sugar (fructose) water with whatever vitamins and other stuff (antioxidants, flavor compounds, etc) was in the apple. I don't know how you can argue that fructose water is that different from fructose-glucose (HFCS) water. The source of the flavoring and coloring are different. And there are some vitamins as I said. And soda has some CO2 disolved in it (which you burp out anyway). Other than that, they are essentially the same.

Eating fruit gives you chunks of fiber with little bits of the sugar contained in the fiber, so the sugar leaks out more slowly over time.

[jacksonvasey]

I think it could be a great idea.  I think it'd be best to be mobile with it, and just set up where people are hot and dry, and want something cold and wet (wisdom from King of the Hill).

My first trip to California I went to Monterey in December, and every restaurant I went to had the normal soda options, as well as a pile of oranges and a juicer.  Rather than trying to sell the equivalent of tropicana OJ, what you got was frothy, foamy, pulpy, and 9 years later still one of my favorite things ever.