Bo’s Coffee, Pure Nectar tie up for expansion

By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter

PURE Nectar Co., Inc. is partnering with Bo’s Coffee to roll out juice bars in the latter’s stores in a move that is expected to help the cold-press juice brand reach its 30% growth target for 2023.

“We’re looking at a 20%-30% increase in sales, easily. Easily, because like Steve was mentioning, we will be partners and they have 130 stores,” Pure Nectar President and Chief Executive Officer Alan L. Escalona, referring to Bo’s Coffee Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Steve D. Benitez.

“So, if we will be able to sell our products to 30% or 40% of their stores, that’s immediately 50 stores rather than putting up one franchise after the other, which takes time,” Mr. Escalona told BusinessWorld in a recent interview.

The partnership, slated to start this week, will also serve as a new revenue stream for Bo’s Coffee, said Mr. Escalona.

“For them, it’s just an additional revenue. It will start maybe next week,” he said. “Pure Nectar and Fruit Magic now became a juice bar solution to different brands.”

Fruit Magic Co., Inc. is a manufacturing company that specializes in fruit and vegetable preservation.

To date, Pure Nectar has 10 company-owned stores, five franchised stores, and more than 300 brand-to-brand stores.

FRANCHISING TRENDSMr. Escalona said franchisees, coming out of the pandemic, are becoming more cautious about where to put their money.

“Last year, people were just starting to pick up, people were still adamant to get or not to get because [the economy] just opened,” Mr. Escalona said. “They were very careful with the little money that they have. They were very careful in getting a franchise and where to locate it.”

“They were very aggressive before, and now they are cautiously aggressive. They want to franchise but some particular parameters should be fulfilled, which is better because the market is now getting more educated with franchising,” he added.

This cautious behavior, however, is seen to also benefit the franchising industry as it might reduce “fly-by-night” franchises.

“Hopefully, because of that mentality, there will be less fly-by-night franchises. We want the industry to really grow and how does it grow? By more successes. If there would be more stories of success, it would be easier to entice people to invest,” he said.

Mr. Escalona also said that more younger people are getting into franchising.

“I think it’s because of the thinking that they want to control their time and that they want to be their own boss,” he said.

However, not all of them have the capital or the investment capacity to buy a franchise.

“What happens is they work first, save and partly get funds from friends and family to open one,” he added.

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK“The outlook is very good. It is because franchising has an 80%-90% chance of winning or of success,” Mr. Escalona said.

The reason behind this is that the systems and the brand already exist. An investor will just need to duplicate it.

“So the success rate is very high, so [the industry] is just going to thrive,” he said.

Mr. Escalona also said many businesses that never used franchises before are now open to it or at least part of its concept

“The word franchise nowadays is being applied to almost all types of business. It may not be exact, but a portion of the franchising system is being done in different aspects now of businesses. Those businesses that we thought could not be franchised, are now being franchised,” he said.