A high-quality stainless steel commercial citrus juicer can drive profits and business success
A SUCCESSFUL JUICING PROGRAM
A successful juicing program can do a lot to grow your company’s market share, increase customer loyalty, support a healthy brand image, and drive increased profits. There are many factors that support a successful juicing program, which we’ll discuss below. Consistently providing a fresh juice experience is important for the program’s long-term success.
These principles apply to grocery stores, hotels, restaurants, cocktail bars, juice bars, cafés, bakeries, and many other retail and foodservice locations. Regardless of your industry, to have a successful citrus juicing program you’ll need the following items:
- A juicing concept and business strategy
- The right equipment to support the concept
- Quality fruit
ATS Automatic Transport System and Stainless Steel Tap for Citrocasa 8000 Series
JUICING ECONOMICS: PRICING YOUR EQUIPMENT
Simply put, business profits are generated when revenues exceed expenses. A business that can increase its revenues more than its expenses can increase its profits in absolute terms (ie. more dollars) and may also increase its profitability margin (ie. profits as a percentage of revenue).
There are many factors that determine business results, but being a good operator is key to long term success. As we know, businesses that consistently provide quality products, generate more revenue than expenses, attract new customers, and retain existing customers are more likely to be successful.
These concepts apply to ‘Juicing Economics’. A well-managed juicing program can help a business generate significantly more revenue than expenses, should help attract and retain customers, and should also support the overall business and marketing strategy.
There are immediate returns from implementing a well-managed juicing program. These programs drive direct juicing profits and attractive ROIs. [See Payback is Sweet] There are also long term advantages that support the overall strategy and support sustainable profits. These long terms gains rely on consistency. The juicing program should continue satisfying customer expectations once they, the consumer, start including fresh juice into their daily, weekly, or monthly plans.
There are five (5) ways a successful juicing program can help drive sustainable profits:
- Direct profits earned from juicing
- Support a healthy, natural, high quality brand image for today’s modern consumer
- Attract new and retain existing customers with innovative, high quality products
- Increase visit frequency to your store or operation
- Increase shopping cart and ticket size
Direct profits – Manage product profitability with smart pricing, packaging, and merchandising strategies on the revenue generation side. Add other juice products to your portfolio, such as lemonade or tangerine juice, to attract a broader customer base and capture more consumer occasions. Implement smart purchasing strategies and drive efficient juicing practices with operational excellence to help support attractive profit margins.
Brand Image – Generate excitement by placing the juicer where customers can experience the freshness. [See In-Store Fresh Juicing Experience] Communicate your fresh and natural efforts to your customer base so they fully understand the value equation and see that your business is producing fresh juice for them. [See How To Squeeze Lemons & Limes for your Bar or Restaurant] Use cross-merchandising and marketing communication to spread the ‘freshness’ to different areas of your operation and support overall brand image.
Attract/retain Customers – Once customers taste the best juice and experience the freshness, they will begin to understand the value equation. [See Why Does Fresh Orange Juice Taste So Good]. Drive initial sampling, provide fresh quality, educate the consumer about the quality product you’re providing. Customers return for high quality product they can’t get elsewhere.
Increased Frequency – Fresh juice is fresh when it’s fresh. Helping customers develop the right replenishment strategy means they will come into the store more frequently for fresh juice. Similar to getting fresh milk, fresh bread, fresh meat… coming to the store for the freshest, best tasting orange juice becomes a regular part of a consumer’s shopping strategy. Fresh juice for your cocktail (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) program also gives an exciting reason to visit your operation. Fresh juice becomes another ‘destination’ for the consumer and gives them another target to aim for in your store or operation.
Shopping Cart Growth – We’ve received a lot of feedback from a diverse customer base that many fresh juice consumers look for high quality products. They understand the value equation. They are more likely to select other high-quality products and are more willing to pay a premium for the quality and/or the experience. In a grocery environment, this means a more attractive and full grocery cart. In food service, this means bigger tickets with ordering nice appetizers or additional entrées.
COMMERCIAL JUICING ECONOMICS
There are many different types of juicing equipment to select from. In an earlier article [See How Much Does a Commercial Juicer Cost], we discuss different types of juicers to choose from based on your juicing needs.
It doesn’t matter if you’re considering a commercial citrus press, centrifugal juicer, hydraulic cold press, masticating juicer, slow juicer, or any other type of juice extractor. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking at manual or hand juicers, semi-automatic juicers, or automatic extractors. There are 5 factors (Taste, Hygiene, Safety, Efficiency, and Reliability) that should drive your investment decision.
If you’re only doing small quantities of juice, you can select some equipment more appropriate for residential use, such as a stainless steel Jack LaLanne, Omega, or Breville juicer. However, if you know you’ll be juicing large volumes on a daily basis, then you’ll want to make sure you’re looking at commercial-grade stainless steel fruit juicing equipment.
Additionally, for lower volumes of citrus squeezing, some customers may select a manual juicer or a semi-automatic juicer, such as a Sunkist style professional citrus juicer. There are other companies that supply similar equipment for lower volumes. However, again, once you know you’ll be juicing more than 1-2 boxes of citrus per day, then labor efficiency and safety become key factors and you’ll want to look at automatic integrated citrus juicers. [See How to Use a Citrus Juicer]
In selecting the right juicing equipment there are a number of factors to consider. The equipment should help drive overall program success, attractive profitability, and ROI, and support your brand. In order for a juicer to help optimize juicing profitability it should deliver outstanding performance in the following 5 areas:
- TASTE – drive product trials and customer retention with incredible flavors
- HYGIENE – deliver the cleanest juice possible with the right equipment and training
- SAFETY – features that ensure safe operation for staff and customers
- EFFICIENCY – equipment that supports juicing speed, fast efficient cleaning, smart strategies
- RELIABILITY – high-quality materials, robust designs, excellent training, and superior after-sales support drive increased reliability and program success
HOW MUCH JUICE WOULD A JUICER JUICE IF A JUICER COULD JUICE JUICE?
A juicer would juice as much juice as a juicer could juice if a juicer could juice juice.
A piece of commercial equipment is only good for a business if performs as it’s supposed to without too many unplanned stoppages. Unplanned stoppages are driven by:
- user errors,
- lacking fruit,
- equipment malfunctions,
- lost or broken parts, and
- poor technical support.
Developing the right juicing strategy and using the right commercial juicing equipment will help a business consistently operate a successful juicing business and minimize the unplanned stoppages. The right equipment and support partners can dramatically improve juicing performance and support juicing success.
This ‘juicing business’ can be a stand-alone business, such as a juice bar or lemonade stand. It can be a ‘business-in-a-business’, such as a juicing operation within a grocery store. It can be a fresh juice component of a ‘craft cocktail’ business, or an important component of a ‘catering operation’. Reliability is key to success.
RELIABILITY
As a retail grocery store operator, could you imagine randomly closing down your bakery or deli operations? If you’re a hotel featuring a craft cocktail program, could you imagine randomly closing down your bar? If you run a fitness center, could you imagine randomly shutting down your treadmills on any given day?
The answer to the above questions should be a resounding “NO”. This answer remains the same when you decide to implement a juicing program.
As a business, once you decide to offer a fresh juice program, your customers will begin counting on you for fresh juice experiences. While there may be the occasional situation that may prevent this from happening, this certainly must be the exception and not the rule. Juicer reliability and juicing strategies are important.
FOOD GRADE STAINLESS STEEL & INTELLIGENT DESIGNS
The use of high quality food grade (304) stainless steel and intelligent designs is what drives Efficiency, Hygiene, and Reliability. A stainless steel commercial citrus juicer, or any other stainless steel juice extractor, becomes an important part of a business’s daily operation: one the staff and customers have to rely on.
Food grade stainless steel combined with smart design features dramatically speed up cleaning times making the cleaning of your juice equipment both more efficient and more effective. This drives increased hygiene. Finally, the use of high quality stainless steel instead of lower quality steel, aluminum, or cheaper plastic can dramatically improve the reliability of the juicer and extend the expected life of the equipment.
Stainless steel comes in many different alloys and qualities. In addition, the finishing of stainless steel can also have a big impact on its level of hygiene and corrosion resistance it provides. A highly polished mirror-like finish can make cleaning easier and increase the level of hygiene achievable.
304 Stainless Steel is what’s called austenitic, it’s not magnetic and, in general, provides much greater resistance to corrosion. Do not use scouring pads or scrub brushes on stainless steel, especially on highly polished stainless steel. Use soft cloths and use plenty of fresh water. Keep the equipment clean to avoid staining and rinse regularly. The NAFEM Stainless Steel Equipment Care and Cleaning Brochure has some great observations and cleaning tips.
In addition to using high quality materials, such as 304 stainless steel and, when needed, high density co-polymers, there are ways to design equipment to dramatically improve overall performance.
Stainless steel and intelligent design features can, for example, help:
- Improve hygiene
- Increase user safety
- Drive juice quality
- Accelerate cleaning processes
- Lead to higher juicing speeds
- Reduce user errors
- Minimize wear issues
- Extend equipment life
- Attract customers
Citrocasa Fantastic M-Series Exploded view with High Quality Seals and 304 Stainless Steel
DURABLE SEALS
It’s absolutely critical that the juice being extracted from the fruit remains in an area that is easy to clean. This is important for both hygiene purposes and for equipment care purposes. It’s also extremely important that the extracted juice does not enter the mechanical or motor area of the juicer. Poor seals are frequently the weakest link in commercial juicing equipment and lead to very costly repairs down the road.
In addition to using high-quality stainless steel, it’s critical that a commercial juicer has high-quality seals. This supports hygiene, efficiency, and equipment reliability.
304 Food Grade Stainless Steel and High Quality Seals
LOW-QUALITY JUICERS
There are many opportunities to buy mediocre or even bad juicing equipment. There can only be one leader in quality and innovation.
Here are some examples characteristic of lower-quality commercial juicers:
- Poor materials – high use of plastic, exposed aluminum, low-quality stainless steel
- Flawed designs – extremely difficult to clean, parts difficult or impossible to remove, excessive number of small parts, no fail-safes, not certified, low-quality juice output
- Weak or no seals – makes cleaning difficult, hygiene impossible and allows juice into mechanical area leading to expensive repairs and equipment failure
- Poor after-sales service – no technical support, lacking spare parts, difficult diagnostic and repairs
Lacking training and roll-out support – poor documentation, no training strategies, lacking overall juicing concept for overall program success
HIGH-QUALITY JUICING EQUIPMENT
Citrus America, Inc. has helped many customers implement highly successful juicing programs using our Citrocasa juicers. We’ve also helped customers dramatically improve their already existing juicing programs. We have helped customers migrate from manual juicing strategies to automatic juicing solutions. We’ve also helped customers switch from from low quality equipment to the industry leader in quality and innovation.
Citrocasa Juicing Equipment in Commercial Dishwasher
Here are a few of the features that make our Fantastic and 8000 Series citrus juicers so incredible:
- High quality and highly polished food grade 304 stainless steel
- High quality 304 stainless steel, serrated dynamic Soft Cut System (SCS) knife for the best tasting juice and extremely reliable cuts on fruit: oranges, lemons, limes, etc.
- All parts that touch the juice easily removable for sanitizing
- All parts (except clear front cover) commercial dishwasher safe for high temperature cleaning
- Industry leading Double Cover for an extra layer of protection and hygiene
- Industry leading seals for reliable protection
- Extremely durable Cross Holder for fast effective cleaning and reduced parts
- Extremely durable stainless steel Automatic or Manual Transport System (ATS/MTS) for easy and efficient pulp and seed removal
- Stainless steel fruit supply rotation plates (for juicers with a hopper) with screwless designs, for increased hygiene, faster cleaning, and reduced parts
- Design strategy based on continuous improvement for a steady stream of innovations
SUMMARY
Both the juice and the juicing experience should be sweet. As Ben Franklin said… the bitterness of a poor investment long outlasts the sweet taste of a low price.
Fresh citrus juice is a fantastic way to drive Healthy Profits in your business. Healthy Profits are sustainable for your business, are good for your customers, and support a healthy brand image.
Implementing a successful juicing strategy requires planning and a quality fruit sourcing strategy. Finally, investing in a high quality stainless steel citrus juicer is critical for driving sustainable Healthy Profits from citrus juicing and will support your business’s juicing success.
At Citrus America, Inc. we’ve developed more than a decade of know-how in helping our North American customers implement and support successful citrus juicing strategies using the industry-leading equipment in terms of innovation and quality. Speak with an expert to better understand your juicing needs and help make the right equipment decisions.
About Citrus America: Citrus America has been driving innovation and quality in the juicing segment for more than a decade in North America and the Caribbean. We’re the exclusive master distributor for Citrocasa and have driven many innovations and quality improvements in juicing equipment. In addition to equipment solutions, we provide tailored training and support strategies to help our customers earn Healthy Profits.
