We were lucky to catch up with Jenifer Sutherland recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jenifer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Landjuicery offers raw, organic, cold pressed juices. Organic produce is generally more expensive than conventional produce, therefore, while there are juice companies that offer organic, this is not standard. I think companies that start out with the intention of all organic realize that cost needs to be cut somewhere and they often stray to conventional produce. When drinking juice as a health measure, you really want to be consuming organic.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I always wished there was a book, a guide, outlining exactly what to do for health and beauty. I thought there must be a secret, it must be out there. As with many things we seek, even if I had found the ‘secret’, I was still looking. When I came across learning about juicing and what seemed like a great way to easily add nutrition in ones diet, this struck me. Juicing made sense. There wasn’t a market for juice in the town I live in, I felt the pulse, like it was a brilliant idea and the timing was perfect. As I studied juicing as a possible business opportunity, a juice bar opened. I felt slightly deflated, as if someone got to it first, but then realized more presence in the market could lead to better business and awareness. So, I kept pursuing the idea, yet with a lot of fear. Having made some verbal commitments I felt like I couldn’t back down. I kept making baby steps until I was really in the process of opening a juice shop with a coffee roasters partner. The partnership helped as I was now committed to some responsibilities that weren’t just my own.
Rather than focus on building a brand, with colors and logos and marketing, the fun things……I was too busy creating the actual juices we would offer and the processes to make that happen. 7 years since opening, I still haven’t quite gotten to the brand development, to be honest!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I started Landjuicery with a personal credit card.

The space that I rented was a former back stock room on the 2nd floor and needed a full build out with plumbing and electrical, refrigerators, sinks, all fixtures. The build out was expensive and didn’t allow for a lot of design extras. The advantage to this space was it was in a great location, the disadvantage was the build out and the space being on the 2nd floor. I don’t know of any experienced retailer that would suggest 2nd floor!
I justified the cost of the build out and the less than optimal 2nd level with the location and reduced rent.
I just had to ‘feel’ it and believe!

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

The idea to start Landjuicery, an organic, cold pressed juice company, was from wanting organic fresh juice daily for its health benefits. I personally wanted to drink juice daily as I found it as a commonality in the information I researched while seeking the ‘secrets’ to health. I think I wanted to find a magic pill that did it all. There are many health paths and gurus but not many, if any, argue that fruits, vegetables and the juice from them aren’t essential. Juice seemed easy, delicious and a great way to get nutrients. I also could feel that juice was ‘the next thing’ or already a thing in other towns, yet it hadn’t hit my town. I live in a mountain town with plenty of athletes and health minded people.

Even with this new passion for juice, the idea sat as just an idea until I met my cafe partners. It wasn’t until we decided that we would open a space together that I had to kick it in to high gear and learn how to juice and create recipes.
The idea behind the juice was that it was pressed fresh daily. We were the manufacturer. The whole business was dependent upon pressing the juice and bottling it.

I got caught up in the passion and the idea of the juice business and failed to realize how labor intensive it is to press fresh juice daily. I also didn’t process at the time that the product we were producing could not be offered as a wholesale product. This gave the business many limitations. At the time of getting the business off the ground, I had let the fear of the commitment of opening a business remain as the biggest obstacle and once I conquered that, and was committed to opening, I didn’t think further down the road at the sustainability of the Landjuicery concept. The fact that you cannot wholesale and that the product was labor intensive and that restaurants only make at best a 30 percent margin weren’t considered.

I would not recommend producing your own product that you cannot wholesale.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.landjuicery.com
• Instagram: landjuicery
• Yelp: LAND JUICERY