Reference no: EM132867392

Booster Juice is a successful Edmonton-based franchise company that developed a winning concept in a high-growth market. The Booster Juice concept entails tasty, convenient, nutritious juices, smoothies, and snacks offered in upbeat, fun locations by energetic staff. The founders built upon the success of their flagship store, opened in 1999, and the growth of juice and smoothie market, which is recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top new business trends for the decade. Whereas the fast-food sector is growing at 3 percent, the smoothie market is increasing at 30 percent annually. The key feature of the 24 ounce smoothies are the nutritional supplements added to juice, fruit, sorbet, and homemade yogurt. Customers design their drinks, adding supplements such as the Cold Warrior Booster, containing echinacea and goldenseal, or the Energy Booster, made with bee pollen and ginseng. The creative ingredients and upbeat atmosphere fit their physically active and youthful target market. With over 280 franchise locations in Canada, Booster Juice continues to pursue an ambitious growth strategy, hoping to increase that number to 350 locations before the market is saturated. According to cofounder and president Dale Wishewan, early decisions including menu and décor were made with franchising in mind because as he explains, "our intention was to stamp these stores across the country." The company entered the U.S. market in 2003 and has also expanded into international markets including India, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the Netherlands. International expansion has presented its share of challenges, as Wishewan explains, "It is challenging to qualify an individual franchisee in Canada, but it is 10 times as important to choose the right master franchisor for an entire country or major city." In Saudi Arabia the company was able to find an experienced master franchisor, however, it spent more than 10 times as much to open its first Middle East location, spending money developing new menus, translating material into Arabic, shipping product ingredients, and travelling back and forth between Canada and the Middle East. The good news was there was essentially no competition in the market, giving the company first-mover advantage in a region that many companies and franchises alike are now scrambling to try and enter.

Questions:

1. What are some of the challenges Booster Juice may face in terms of their international expansion plans?

2. Identify some new markets the company should consider in the future?

Note - Prepare your answers like Case Memo IRAC: Issue, Reason, Analysis and Conclusion.