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A boost is born!
While accompanying her husband Jeff on a trip the US, Janine Allis saw a hole in the Australian market for a healthy fast food alternative. As a consumer she had always struggled to find anything healthy to eat and drink when she was short of time, particularly to find something healthy for her boys.
So upon returning to Australia she developed a business plan and raised $250,000 through friends investing in the concept to get the plan underway.
Janine consulted with nutritionists and naturopaths to create a menu of healthy juices and smoothies that were free of preservatives, artificial flavours and colours. She is passionate about creating products that are as healthy as possible, and continues to research new ways to make the products better and better. Her range of TD4 low fat frozen yoghurts used in the smoothies contain live cultures streptococcus thermophillis and lactobacillus delbruekil for added nutritional benefits.
The first store opened in Adelaide in 2000, and over the following six years more than 189 stores have opened throughout Australia and throughout the rest of the world.
Janine has experienced every facet of the company, from painting the floor in the first store and working in the store, to negotiating the purchase of another juice bar chain. This has allowed her to fully understand and develop the growing business, and implement specific procedures as part of the total business plan.
About Janine
Janine’s enthusiasm and passion, along with her diverse career and life experiences, have driven the company to where it is today. “I have gained all my experience through living life”, Janine says. “I went straight out of high school when I was 17 into McCann Erikson Media. I’m the kind of person who likes to try everything. When I was 17, I decided to try modelling. I did that for six months, thought ‘Nah, this is not for me’ and went back to advertising as an account executive”.
The travel bug took hold after that and she found herself overseas for six years. “Travelling and working abroad taught me that you have to be a problem solver”, says Janine. “I was in the Canary Islands, Spain, and you have to be a problem solver because there’s so much corruption there you could end up dead.” It is this combination of work, travel and raw experience that has shaped Janine’s life and attitude towards business. “Everything I’ve done has led me to believing that there is no problem that can’t be solved”, explains Janine. “The biggest learning curve of my life though has been Boost, but I don’t go around thinking I know everything. I am a voracious reader and I try to read everything from customer revolution books other retailers’ manuals. I haven’t got any degrees but I am extremely tenacious.”
Putting in the hard yards
Janine got down and dirty from the outset, developing the structures, business plan and ethics that have been the staple of every franchise employee since. “I flew to Adelaide to open the first store; I ran it, scrubbed the floors and really learnt the business. It meant I was continually developing and growing it”, she says of her initial output. By her own admission she never had the intention of opening just one store. And though it may seem strange to some to start in a foreign state, logistically the options were better to start in Adelaide. Janine and Jeff had researched the market and found that starting in a smaller market offered less financial risk. Despite her vision for opening more than one store, Janine never really knew how big the brand would become. She threw herself into the deep end at the outset, didn’t take no for an answer and never looked back.
Building momentum
With the help of a leasing consultant, Jeff - who looked after all leasing matters - came home one day when only two stores were open with an agreement to open 18 stores in Westfield Shopping Centres throughout the country.
“What was interesting”, says Janine of the Westfield deal, “was that he [Jeff] came in and went ‘We’ve got to build it [the business].’ We didn’t have much infrastructure to do it. I drew the first five stores to scale, so it was very hands on the whole way. We had a rule at one point that we weren’t allowed to count the store numbers. If we counted them it would seem like an enormous job.” To get things up and running, Janine and Jeff refused to take no for an answer. The word ‘try’ never entered into their vocabulary. Boost has a ‘can-do’ attitude that is reflected in all its stores. “If someone comes up and says ‘I’ll try and do it’, we say ‘don’t try, just do it’,” says Janine. “And so many times through our journey, particularly through building our stores, there have been many no’s that were converted to a yes. If you go in with a positive attitude you can do anything.”
The growth of the Boost brand was all about putting those practices into place. Yet the hardest thing to do was not so much creating the Boost philosophy, but putting the right people into place.
“Once you’ve put the right people in place, everything is easy”, admits Janine. “If they don’t have the right cultural fit, forget it.”
The franchise model
There was never any doubt that Janine would franchise. It was a fantastic way to grow the business, not so much in terms of cash but in terms of quality.
All Boost franchisees are referred to as partners. “They are an important part of the Boost family”, says Janine. “Their success is our success and visa versa.” Janine does not believe in letting partners fend for themselves. Boost will source the best locations with the most reasonable rent so that all Boost businesses are profitable.
“We are totally transparent”, says Janine of the business model. “We actually tell people at the start, ‘If you don’t want to share your figures on profit and loss, you’re getting into the wrong company’.
We talk about P&L’s (Profit and Loss) every month. They see ours, we see theirs and we discuss how to improve their bottom line. A lot of franchisors worry about their top line because they get royalties. We worry about their [franchisees] bottom line because we want to make sure they are as successful as possible, because if they’re a solid business it helps the business overall.”
The customer experience
As customers ourselves we know that the only real way a company can make you happy is by listening to what it is you actually want and then giving it to you. So we made this our philosophy at Boost.
Boost's number 1 priority is our customers!
- Our store teams are 110% focused on the customer
- Our products are developed for the customer
In fact, the entire way we conduct our business has been developed around the customer to ensure we are giving them what they want, and not just what we think they want or what we want to give them.
How do we know what customers want?
So yes, we are slightly trophy obsessed, but that’s only because we have the determination of a psychotic soccer mum who makes us do every form of co-curricular activity, from netball practice to ribbon twirling!
2007
- National Retailers Association Awards – Bank of Queensland Franchise Award
- National Retailers Association Awards – Supreme Reward for Best Retailer
- Highly Commended – Supreme Award for Best Retailer
- Merit for Franchise Award
- Nomination for Franchise Award
- Nomination for Best Specialty Retailer
2006
- Governor of Victoria Export Awards - Commendation
- Finalist NRA Best Franchise
- Dolly favourite Youth 5 Minute Feed
2005
- Price Waterhouse Coopers Franchisor of the Year award - VIC
- Price Waterhouse Coopers Women of the Year Award in Franchising – VIC
- Price Waterhouse Coopers – Franchisor of the Year – Finalist
- Price Waterhouse Coopers – Women in Franchising – Finalist
- AMEX Franchisor of the Year
- International Women’s Veuve Clique Award – Finalist
2004
- BRW Fastest Growing Franchise 2005
- Westpac Group Business Owner Award – National Winner
- Westpac Group Business Owner Award – Victorian Winner
- Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year
- Telstra Victorian Business Woman of the Year
- MyBusiness Readers Choice Award
- Lend Lease Retailer of the Year Award - Finalist
* There are also lots of awards our individual stores have won, unfortunately there’s too many to fit on the page!
We reckon we have the coolest board members in the world!
Janine Allis
As a business woman, wife and mother of three, the healthy fast food concept that Boost originated from was more of a natural evolvement for Janine than a business idea. As a health conscious mother with little time on her hands Janine got frustrated at the lack of healthy fast food alternatives. She figured it’d take years before a decent healthy fast food chain was established so she decided it’d just be quicker and easier to develop something herself! It worked!
Janine’s experience as a senior manager with Village Roadshow in Melbourne and Asia provided her with the required knowledge to set up Boost Juice.
After 12 months of research the first Boost Juice store opened in Adelaide in May 2000. Boost Juice is now an extremely successful franchise business and the fastest growing juice bar chain in Australia.
Geoff Harris
Talk about an active entrepreneur! Not only is Geoff a highly committed father of 3, he's climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, walked the Kokoda Trail twice and has run the Melbourne Marathon! He's truly one of a kind who makes a point of living life to the full. Led by his passion for health and fitness he bought into Boost in 2002 and is Director of the Board.
Geoff is Founding Director and substantial shareholder of Flight Centre Limited, a Global Travel company in 6 countries with 1250 company owned stores and over 5,000 staff. Geoff is also Director on the Board at the Reach Foundation, a Melbourne based charity organization committed to supporting and developing our youth.
Rod Young
Aside from being one of the funniest guys ever, Rod's generally regarded as Australia's leading franchise industry consultant. Rod Young is Executive Director of DC Strategy. DC Strategy is widely recognised as the region’s leading Distribution Strategy, Franchising and International consulting group.He is also Chairman of the 2003 FCA Franchising Conference, as well as being a regular speaker at franchising seminars and conferences, throughout Australasia.
Rod's a versatile management professional with a broad range and depth of experience leading a consulting conglomerate developing networks and brands. With over 25 years experience in the franchising licensing and business development in Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States of America, Rod has been a key advisor to some of Australia's leading groups transforming smaller businesses to national and international chains and steering larger organizations in using franchising or licensing as a management and marketing tool.
Marc Besen
Marc Besen has been a retailer and property developer for 54 years, and has been the driving force behind the multi-faceted Sussan Group since 1950.
Marc and his family own the Highpoint Shopping Centre in Maribrynong and the TarraWarra Estate Winery and Vineyard in the Yarra Valley, as well as a number of other investment vehicles. In 2003, a life long dream was fulfilled with the official opening of the TarraWarra Museum of Art in the Yarra Valley, designed and constructed to house a significant part of the Besens’ collection of Australian contemporary art.
Marc and his wife Eva have gifted the collection and the museum to the Victorian people. His interest in innovative retail ventures drew him to Boost Juice and the brand’s distinctive approach to marketing, which ultimately led to his shareholding and position on the board.
Jeff Allis
Jeff Allis was the group program director for Austereo’s 2day and Triple M networks, before he started with Boost in June 05.
Austereo is the leading Australian publicly-listed radio network He is one of the leading radio & marketing executives in Australia, with more than 22 years experience in the strategic on-air direction of hit FM radio.
Jeff is responsible for the branding of Boost Juice, from the left of centre marketing to the innovation which is Boost. He is currently the CEO of Boost Australia.
It was only a matter of time before we put wheels on our stores so we could bring Boost to you! Our new Boost Mobeel is self-contained so it can be where ever the action is.
Boost Mobeel can go just about anywhere … beaches, universities, corporate events… you name it! We are currently operating in Melbourne and Brisbane with plans to set up in Sydney in the near future.
No two events are ever the same, therefore prices and booking details vary depending on the individual event's requirements.
If you're interested in having the Boost Mobeel attend your event, please contact us on (03) 9508 4400 or at mobile@boostjuicebars.com with the following details:
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