How the Food Industry Can Cater to a Growing Focus on Health and Wellness

On this episode of The Main Course, Host Barbara Castiglia talked
with Ross Franklin, the Founder and CEO of Pure Green, an
omnichannel business that is one of the fastest-growing,
cold-pressed juice companies and juice bar franchises in the
United States. They talked about Pure Green, making a franchise
health brand scalable, and how the pandemic made people focus
more on health.


While Pure Green offers franchises, they also have corporately
owned locations. They have a wholesale division that works with
over 40 professional sports teams and high-end hotels and
thousands of accounts across the US. In addition to a
direct-to-consumer division where they sell their cold-pressed
juices online, Pure Green plans to open 400 Pure Green franchise
locations in the coming years.


They weren't always an omnichannel business, starting in 2014 as
a brick-and-mortar store.


Their core products are hand-crafted and made-to-order superfood
smoothies, acai bowls, and pitaya bowls, and cold-pressed juice
and shots. The hydraulic cold press helps retain all the
vitamins, minerals, and live enzymes from the fresh fruits and
vegetables. There are up to five pounds of fresh fruits and
vegetables in a 16-ounce bottle. They quickly found out that
people loved their juices, and as their popularity grew, they
expanded their business to meet the consumer's demands.


"As our business started to grow and scale, and our cold-pressed
juice and shots became really a trend, and we developed a very
loyal customer base, we started the wholesale business in 2016,"
Franklin said.


Right before the pandemic, they knew they needed to grow even
more. They didn't want to take any venture capital money, instead
focusing on equity crowdfunding where their customers can pitch
in capital to grow the business. In 2015, the Securities and
Exchange Commission adopted a rule that allowed unaccredited
investors to invest in companies via crowdfunding.


This allowed Pure Green to start their campaign via Republic.co.


Listen to hear more about how Pure Green Crowdfunded Campaign
during a pandemic.