If the health benefits that flow from drinking fresh juice seem evident, the possibility of launching a thriving business based on consistent, subscription-based consumption wasn’t always so clear.
That was even more true about five years ago when Kimmye Bohannon and a partner launched the Weekly Juicery, Lexington’s premiere purveyor of cold-pressed (if somewhat pricey) juices.
“There’s a lot of power in repeating a healthy choice,” Bohannon said. “If I gave you one bottle of green juice, that’s fantastic. But if you drank a bottle of green juice every day for five, 10, 15 days — you’re going to feel a big difference.”
Enough people agree that Bohannon and her team are expanding and celebrating a major certification milestone.
On Aug. 19, the Weekly Juicery opened its second Lexington location, at 3735 Palomar Centre Drive. It joins the original juice bar location, at 436 Old Vine St. There are also two spots in Louisville and one in Cincinnati.
After four successful years, Bohannon announced in late May that the Weekly Juicery has obtained organic certification from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, making them the only organic juice company in the region. The next closest is in Detroit.
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Kimmye Bohannon, co-founder of The Weekly Juicery, takes a break along with regional operations manager Nick Pennington at the original Old Vine Street location.
The process took two years to complete, and Bohannon said produce costs have increased by 50 percent.
“We went through this process with the government because we wanted to give customers an insurance policy that what they are consuming is the highest quality product we can find,” she said.
Not only does every product used in the kitchen have to be certified organic – from the apple cider vinegar rinse to the cleaning supplies – but the juice extraction process now has nearly 20 control points that are monitored and recorded in order to meet inspection criteria.
“It was a learning process,” said Bohannon. “I feel like in this industry, there are a lot of people who use organic whenever possible, and I respect and appreciate their efforts. But I wanted to go the extra mile. It’s important to me personally – I use organic food at home, and I wanted the same standards for our customers.”
The Weekly Juicery is a cold-press juice bar, meaning they crush and press fruit and vegetables in small batches. The cold press does not produce as much heat during the process, which preserves the nutrients. A bottle of juice averages about $10 and keeps for up to three days.
In addition to in-store sales, the business is named in part for the weekly home delivery program. With two options – “Pick-You-Own” or “Surprise Me” – the weekly juice program is still a sizable part of the business. Customers receive their juice in an insulated bag with an ice pack to keep them cold. Weekly subscribers receive lower, locked-in pricing, a sort of reward, in Bohannon’s eyes, for their commitment to a healthy lifestyle.
Bohannon, who is originally from Nashville but has spent the past two decades in Lexington, launched the company in 2012. She and her neighbor Elizabeth Beal would take turns making juice for one another.
“I would make her green juice for a week, and she’d return the favor the next week,” she explained. “And one day, while I was waiting for her to bring my juice, I thought, ‘This is amazing, why couldn’t we start a business doing this?’”
She and Beal launched the company, and while Beal has since moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, she still plays an active role in the business, including answering the “juice hotline.”
In the beginning, Bohannon and Beal made juices for their friends and neighbors, with Monday through Friday delivery. Looking for a way to buy organic produce in the volume they needed, Bohannon called on her friends Mac and Anne Stone of Elmwood Stock Farm. The Stones said they could provide the produce in bulk and have it packed and ready to go each week. Today, Elmwood Stock Farm remains the Weekly Juicery’s biggest partner.
“They provide produce for about half the year,” she said. “We take everything they can grow, and if they are unable to meet our needs, we have two other great partners – Lazy 8 Stock Farm and Sustainable Harvest.”
During their first two months in business, they had more than 80 delivery customers. Bohannon recalled sending her husband to every Dollar Tree store in town to purchase all the clear plastic bottles he could find.
“That was expensive, and by no means sustainable, but we knew we had to start somewhere,” she said.
One convert is designer Blake Eames, whose studio is next to the original Weekly Juicery. Eames said that when she first met Bohannon, she could barely stand carrot juice. But over time, Bohannon introduced her to the healing power of juice.
“She started me off with fruit smoothies,” Eames said, “slowly adding secret ingredients that she would later confess to me: ‘You just drank a whole head of romaine’ or, ‘I bet you didn’t know I added kale and beet juice to that.’ I’ve changed my diet drastically, deleting the foods that made me feel draggy and identifying the foods that gave my body the most energy.”
The business growth and increasing number of juice devotees has Bohannon feeling optimistic about the future.
“I never dreamed [my business] would be this big, so now I’ve reset my map and set new goals. I don’t know how we’ll do it, but I believe we’ll get there.”