The owner of D.C.’s Jrink has sold her 8-year-old juice company to another local business after turning down an offer from the same interested buyer last summer — and as her other venture, herbal supplement retailer Apothekary, sees explosive pandemic-related growth.
Shizu Okusa told us Bethesda’s Purée Juice Bar has acquired Jrink in a deal that closed Nov. 30. She declined to disclose terms of the transaction, but said it includes a three-year noncompete agreement.
“I think if I was able to push it out at least until the vaccine came out and the world felt a little more stable, I think we probably would’ve had more of a competitive process,” Okusa said. “But we’d been in talks with these people for so long and we got a good enough price that we felt really comfortable about, so I think it was really the best of endings.”
The future of Jrink
Jrink will function as Purée’s “cooler, hipper baby sister” with few noticeable differences from its existing brand “except for better ingredients and improvements along the way,” Purée founder Amy Waldman said in an email. That includes packaging in glass bottles and using entirely organic ingredients. The Jrink brand, which Purée plans to maintain as a subsidiary, will also launch a plant-based food menu.
“There will be more product crossover in the near future as I believe the Jrink customer will love the quick and easy healthy food options from Purée as an addition to their wellness plan,” Waldman said. Both juice businesses “have always been very similar in product, customer service, and mission and it made sense for us to merge in some way, we just weren’t sure how,” she added. “We explored ways to develop our companies for a while, and then with Covid and the growth of Apothekary, it all finally came together for both of us.”
The deal expands Purée’s customer base and product offerings after nine years in business, Waldman said. The company also has locations at the Mosaic District in Merrifield and Sibley Memorial Hospital in the District, with a site at Whole Foods Market in Tysons coming and nationwide shipping. That’s after launching out of the Bethesda Central Farm Market — as Waldman tested recipes at her synagogue in December 2011 — then opening her first storefront in Bethesda Row.
Purée has purchased Jrink’s brand and leases, and hired three of its nine employees. Another two moved out of town and a third was let go because of a lack of performance. Three others lost their jobs in the transition, but Apothekary is now hiring to grow its 26-person team and plans to interview those workers, Okusa said.
Jrink previously received a $179,000 loan from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. That came as Jrink underwent a major pivot, rapidly growing its online delivery business after shutting down three of its four brick-and-mortar locations in the spring.
The sale “was happening either way, but definitely got expedited because of Apothekary’s growth,” Okusa said. Now the goal is to devote more resources and focus on the growing market opportunity for Apothekary, which sells herbs, spices and teas as alternatives to quick-fix pharmaceuticals.
The future of Apothekary
Apothekary expects to generate more than $5 million in revenue for 2020 while staying profitable. “But that, combined with Jrink’s growth, was unsustainable under one roof,” said Okusa, founder and CEO of their parent company, Wellthy & Co.
Apothekary raised a seed round in 2019 but “haven’t needed to even use that money, frankly,” Okusa said.
The business has gained traction as people spend more time at home and focus on self-care, mental wellness, immunity and “all of the things that we knew were going to be important, but I think what happened with Covid is, obviously people are more alert and woke to all of the things that they need in their bodies,” said Okusa, also a DC Inno 2020 Inno on Fire winner.
Apothekary’s subscription revenue represents 25% of total company revenue, with a customer base of 129,000 subscribers. It now ships globally to 22 countries, with about 10% of revenue coming from Canada, its second-largest market to the U.S. And it’s opening up to wholesale, as retailers increasingly look to carry wellness products in their stores.
The startup has seen “a lot of venture firms circling over the last six months,” Okusa said. She said she’s also having early conversations about the prospect of raising more funding, but it’s “not urgent right now.”
“I have had a hard time finding the right venture firm that I truly feel like are operators and understand what it’s like mentally and emotionally to run a business,” she said. “Something I am thinking about is whether or not I ever want to raise venture capital, if and when we find a right firm — then we would just naturally grow it and keep my eyes on the prize.”
This story has been updated to reflect that Purée hired three of Jrink’s nine employees.
