Not just one or two, but a total of 20 Jamba Juice franchises are now owned by the Redmon family from the San Francisco Bay Area through acquisition and investments. Charlayne Redmon, her husband Dwayne, and their four children are all involved in the family business.
The African American husband and wife team first got started when they launched CFO to Small Business, a financial consulting company for small business owners. They eventually thought of expanding into the healthy food industry and that's when they considered becoming franchise owners.
Dwayne initially acquired a contract with Jamba Juice through CFO to Small Business and expressed their interest in ownership. So when 16 corporate locations have been sold off, they made an offer to buy it. They started from there and eventually managed to purchase 2 more locations from private owners and build 2 others from the ground up.
Now, their franchises are under Valley Juice Co., LLC, an umbrella corporation they formed to protect their investments, business partners, financial backer, and a director of operations. The business may have been steady recently, but they also went through challenges before coming to this point.
"None of us had ever worked at a Jamba Juice. In addition, the director of operations was coming from an extensive background at a top hamburger franchise brand, which was very different," Charlayne told Black Enterprise. "Because the locations we purchased were corporate-run locations, the people working at those stores didn't have as much experience as we thought they would. There was definitely a learning curve, and at one point, we had to clean house [and bring] in people that would perform."
During the current COVID-19 pandemic, they were initially affected negatively. They had to temporarily close 6 locations and other branches in the malls. But now, all the locations are back open and fully operational.
Moreover, Phillip, the youngest of their children, credits their close family ties to their success. He said they still continue learning from each other and it helps. They are hoping to expand into other brands as well but still in the healthy food industry, and they are certainly open to more possibilities.
"You really want to have an idea of what you want," Phillip said. "Don't let what you think the cost might scare you off. It's not as expensive as you might think. The beginning is the hard part. Don't try and run before you walk, take one step at a time, and listen. Realize that you're going to make mistakes and learn from them."
For more information about Jamba Juice locations in the Bay Area and/or to order online, visit JambaJuiceSF.com