Jamba Juice Case Study Solution

Jamba Juice is a smoothie and juice café that is known for their healthy alternatives to sugar packed meals and drinks. When they opened the doors to their first store in 1990 under the name of Juice Club, they were the only free standing healthy juice and smoothie café, similar to what was offered only in small, local health food stores at the time. In 2008 James D. White was hired as the new CEO of Jamba Juice. Bringing his experience from major US food and drug retailer, Safeway, White hoped to come up with a new strategic plan and direction for the company. However, the company faced many difficulties at the time: they had recently entered an area that was in direct competition with the likes of Starbucks and McDonalds, without the financial backing that those restaurants had. In order to stay competitive they needed to find a way increase their profit. Jamba Juice only offered cold drinks, so in areas with cold seasons, such as New York, they lose money during the winter months. McDonald’s offered smoothies for about one dollar less than Jamba Juice and Starbucks was well known for their adult coffee beverages, which gave them an easy way to enter into a market for children who already came to the store with their parents. With their higher profit margins, large fast food companies could use smoothies as a loss leader and cause Jamba Juice to lose their footing. As McDonald’s began to market their smoothies, it became clear that they were seeing Jamba Juice as a rising