Paramus gets taste of the city

Saturday, August 4, 2007

By JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER

BETH BALBIERZ / THE RECORD
The store in Westfield Garden State Plaza is a new stop for Jamba Juice.

The first Jamba Juice smoothie and juice bar in New Jersey had been open at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus less than an hour, but Josh Galarza didn't need to look at a menu to know what he wanted – a whey protein fat burner smoothie. "I know them from the city," said Galarza, who works in Macy's, at the MAC cosmetics counter.

Galarza wasn't just a customer on Wednesday, opening day for Jamba Juice. He also was living proof that their real estate and expansion strategy is working.

When San Francisco-based Jamba Juice decided to move into the Northeast about three years ago, its strategy was simple: Build the brand in New York City first before branching out into the suburbs.

"When you look for real estate, you think in terms of a hub and spokes," said Eric Paulucci of Hackensack, regional director of operations for Jamba Juice in the Northeast and Midwest. "So we developed New York City as the hub, and we see the surrounding tri-state area as the spokes."

The Plaza Jamba Juice is the company's 19th location in the tri-state area. Most of its other locations are in Manhattan. A limited selection of Jamba Juice products also are sold at the Whole Foods store in Edgewater, under a licensing agreement with that grocery chain.

The 1,200-square-foot store at the Plaza, in the new wing adjacent to the 16-screen AMC movie theater, is a new step for Jamba Juice. The West Coast company built its brand identity on college campuses and in urban locations, rather than traditional enclosed malls. But Paulucci said the company had been trying to get into the Plaza for some time, and was quick to grab a space when the new wing was opened for asking.

Jeff Lagowitz, a partner in retail real estate firm Metro Commercial based in Fort Lee, said he sees Jamba Juice moving into the same kind of "high traffic, downtown, urban locations" as Starbucks. He predicts local landlords will be approaching the company with lease deals as it becomes better known in this region.

Jamba Juice is one of the major players in the $2.5 billion smoothie and juice market, said Dan Titus, who heads the Juice and Smoothie Association, a trade group based in Chino Hills, Calif. Independent, mom-and-pop juice and smoothie bars used to vastly outnumber chain stores, Titus said. "Now, it's the other way around," he said.

Jamba Juice is looking for more locations in New Jersey, and expects to open a second store near the Rutgers University campus in central Jersey, Paulucci said. The company also plans to open a store at Palisades Center mall in West Nyack, N.Y.

Titus said the health-conscious customer tends to be "a lot more fickle," so that Jamba Juice and other juice bars have to be quick to adapt to changing health trends. "If you remember in the 1980s, oat bran was king. In the 1990s, it was calcium. So they have to adapt their offerings," he said. Juice drinks and smoothies in general, "are still kind of trendy," he said. When a company like Jamba Juice moves into an area, females 14 to 45 usually are the first to discover it. "Then they'll bring their truck-driver husbands in with them."

Retail appears Fridays and Saturdays in The Record. E-mail: verdon@northjersey.com