Three St. Thomas alumni started a raw juice vending machine company, Juice Cold Pressed, as a class project and are now advertising to a national market.
Graduates L.J. Stead, Eric Ploeger and Kamal Mohamed said they hope to have a total of 10,000 machines nationwide in the next six years.
“We have a pretty aggressive growth strategy,” Stead, the president of Juice Cold Pressed, said.
The company is currently working to install machines in Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix, he said.
Ploeger, Stead and Mohamed got the idea for the machine in 2012, in Entrepreneurship 450 with professors Alec Johnson and Jay Ebben. The former students attribute their success, in part, to their two professors.
“They were instrumental in helping us with figuring out how to stand out from others in the same industry,” Mohamed, the CEO, said.
The most important and unique aspect of this company, according to Mohamed, is the distribution method.
He said the company was inspired by the idea of providing “convenient, affordable, easy juice while people are on the go.”
The machines distribute 16 ounces of juice that are guaranteed to have been freshly pressed within the last 48 hours, Stead said.
The company has two machines open for business, both located in downtown Minneapolis. The machines offer two flavors, kale and beet, but customers can mix and match, Mohamed said. The juice costs $6.99 per bottle, compared to the market average of $9-11.
The machines are in the transfer phase, the founders said, transitioning out of the beta-test form of the first machines. This means the machines are now “bring your own bottle,” Stead said, rather than the prepackaged bottles of the previous vending machine models. Consumers also have the option to buy a mason jar to use.
Stead and Mohamed said they want to develop an identity that is known nationwide and create a brand that reflects loyalty to the product.
The company’s future, like its past, may include St. Thomas. Mohamed said the company plans on bringing their machines to campus within the next year.
“We definitely want to see our home turf have at least a few machines,” Stead said.
Sophomore Daniel Roberts said he would like to see a machine at the university, even though he would not personally use it.
“It would be cool seeing the machine on campus knowing that people were possibly going to start getting something better as a snack, but I would never use the machine,” Roberts said.
Junior Erin Whitacre said she thinks it would be a good option for students to have on campus.
“It would be great to have an easily accessible, healthy juice option like this around campus,” Whitacre said.
Rebecca Mariscal can be reached at mari2162@stthomas.edu.