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Juice bar owners can increase sales and improve their brand communications by applying the top trends recently released by the National Restaurant Association.

The National Restaurant Association recently released “What’s Hot – 2016 Culinary Forecast” that features several trends that impact juice and smoothie bar owners and operators. Drawing on an online survey of over 1,5000 members of the American Culinary Federation in September of 2015, the chefs were provided a list of 221 items and instructed to rate each as a “hot trend,” “yesterday’s news,” or “perennial favorite.”

Top Trends Directly Impact Juice Bar Owners

  • 77% Locally grown produce
  • 77% Hyper-local sourcing (e.g. restaurant gardens, onsite beer brewing, house-made items)
  • 76% Natural ingredients/ minimally processed food
  • 73% Healthful kids’ meals

Juice Bar Owners Can Drive Sales by Promoting Locally Grown Produce in their offerings

With 77% of respondents calling this a “hot trend,” featuring locally grown produce in your juices will delight customers and tap into a powerful customer demand. Owners should consider signage, messaging, and employee training that reinforces this message to customers.

Adding an on-site garden can tap into customers willing to pay a premium for the freshest ingredients

Again, with 77% of respondents from the National Research Association survey responding extremely favorably to this trend, it’s clear that owners need to think of ways to provide the freshest and most local ingredients as possible.

Customers continue to seek out food and beverages that contain natural ingredients and minimally processed food

While juice bar owners intuitively know this from their customer base, this data point from the National Research Association indicates that the demand for natural ingredients is spreading across the general population. Owners should leverage this insight in their marketing and advertising to attract new customers who are trying healthy eating or juicing for the first time.

Adding specific juices for children and/or featuring a kid’s meal that includes a fresh squeezed fruit or vegetable juice presents a significant new revenue or additional sales opportunity

This presents a huge opportunity for sales by adding either a healthy kids’ meal or a line of juices specifically for children.