Boost boss pledges further growth

THE boss of the Boost Juice bars chain is pledging to continue growing the business in a “sensible and sustainable” way.

Veteran retailer Richard O’Sullivan, has just opened Boost’s 10th site, in Bristol, and says between “three and five” new locations will follow in the next 12 months, depending on the right locations becoming available at the right price.

Despite much talk of recession-hit retail landlords offering huge incentives to attract tenants, Mr O’Sullivan said Boost had not seen any change in the market place.

“The size of units we take, in the kinds of locations we want are scarce and are priced at a premium, and that has remained throughout the recession. The only upside for us is that some of our competitors have fallen by the way-side.

“We typically take 300sq ft and there’s a lot of competition for that space, whereas it’s a different matter for the bigger retail boxes.”

The founder and former boss of Millies Cookies said Cheshire-based Boost – the UK arm of an Australian-based group – had turned over £3m last year.

“We’re only two years in and only really beginning our journey – it took 20 years to build Millies – but our stores won’t lose money, which I don’t think is a bad result in this context.”

In the long-term Mr O’Sullivan, who famously discovered Boost while holidaying in Australia and then signed a deal to bring the concept to these shores, believes there is space for up to 100 outlets.

“I’m in no hurry at all, it’s very much steady as she goes. I think in the next 12 months we could open between three and five locations, but that depends on the
availability of location and the commercial terms too.

“If a site at Bluewater or Manchester Airport or Heathrow becomes available we are able to move quickly and do a deal.”

Mr O’Sullivan, who is also non-executive chairman of fast-growing Manchester Mexican fast food chain Barburrito, said in these tough economic climes it was “vital” for all businesses, particularly consumer-facing ones, to be focused on new product development and marketing.

With this in mind, he said a new electronic loyalty card system was being introduced at Boost this week.