Starbucks sells off Evolution Fresh

Post Reply
Brian Lutz
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1425
Joined: March 1st, 2009, 5:51 pm
Location: Piedmont Triad, NC
Been thanked: 56 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Starbucks sells off Evolution Fresh

Post by Brian Lutz »

https://www.wsj.com/articles/starbucks- ... 1653434700

Starbucks is selling off their Evolution Fresh brand of juices to Bolthouse Farms in a transaction reported to have a non-material effect on financials (corporate speak for "pocket change"), reportedly in an effort to focus more on their core coffee business.. They bought the brand in 2011 for $30 million and for a brief period ran a number of standalone juice bar locations (I know Bellevue Square had one of these for a while,) but have failed to gain much traction in this area.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Starbucks sells off Evolution Fresh

Post by storewanderer »

Similar to what happened with Tevana (Teavana?).

Actually I wished they would develop a better tea program. That is one area where I find Starbucks to lag behind Caribou and Coffee Bean/Tea Leaf on offering.
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Starbucks sells off Evolution Fresh

Post by Alpha8472 »

The juice fad is over. People are not into juice like they used to be. Starbucks should have focused on coffee and tea. No one goes to Starbucks for juice. They would go to Jamba Juice if they wanted juice. Is Jamba Juice still open in most areas? They have disappeared in many cities. I have not seen any advertising for them in ages. The Safeway Jamba Juices have all closed.

I would buy grocery store juice before I would pay outrageously high prices at a restaurant.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Starbucks sells off Evolution Fresh

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 27th, 2022, 12:53 am The juice fad is over. People are not into juice like they used to be. Starbucks should have focused on coffee and tea. No one goes to Starbucks for juice. They would go to Jamba Juice if they wanted juice. Is Jamba Juice still open in most areas? They have disappeared in many cities. I have not seen any advertising for them in ages. The Safeway Jamba Juices have all closed.

I would buy grocery store juice before I would pay outrageously high prices at a restaurant.
Starbucks wanted to get into the juice business in its efforts to be "all things to all people." The issue when you have a group of 4 people out is if one wants juice, the entire group of 4 people may not go to Starbucks. But if Starbucks has those options, the group of 4 people will go there and everyone will be happy.

The juice fad comes and goes a lot. I think it will cycle back in again soon.
Romr123
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 693
Joined: February 1st, 2021, 4:26 pm
Has thanked: 37 times
Been thanked: 56 times
Status: Offline

Re: Starbucks sells off Evolution Fresh

Post by Romr123 »

It looks like Evolution has some expertise around high-pressure preservation (cold pasteurization) which I imagine Starbucks liked enough at the time to experiment with. We've got a salsa company nearby which has done some really interesting work with it (it doesn't ruin the texture and doesn't cook the vegetables).
Post Reply