Jamba Inc. has announced the sale of 12 additional restaurants to experienced franchise operators, with the sale of 10 stores in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Blended Star LLC, whose principals are Daljit and Pam Hundal, and two stores in Southern California to RPM Foods Inc, whose principals are Michael Razipour and Pouya Moalej.
The purchase of the Utah restaurants by Mr. and Mrs. Hundal, includes a development commitment to further expand the Jamba Juice brand. These sales also reflect the company's continuing progress against its strategic refranchising initiative.
"We purposely structured our refranchise packages to enable prospective franchise operators to qualify for small business loans through the SBA program," said Thibault de Chatellus, senior vice president, global franchise and development, Jamba Juice Company. "That strategy, along with the continued progress against our BLEND plan growth initiatives that are transforming the company, is paying off. We are attracting the right kind of investors to the brand and we expect continued success with the remaining locations, many of which are in varying stages of completion."
Since announcing its refranchising initiative, Jamba has been able to attract and engage experienced, multiunit franchise operators to the brand — those that are established with the brand as existing franchise store owners as well as operators who are expanding their franchise portfolio.
"I own five other franchise operations and I've always wanted to own a Jamba Juice. This is an exciting time for us," said Michael Razipour. "We like how Jamba promotes a healthy, active lifestyle in its brand positioning and offerings. Everyone is trying to follow a trend of being ‘healthier for you,' but Jamba is already ahead of that curve with their better-for-you offerings."
The refranchising transactions build on the sale of 35 restaurant locations in Arizona, Oregon, and California, completed since the refranchising initiative was announced.
With close to one-third of the refranchise store sales complete, the company is well on its way towards achieving its goal of refranchising up to 150 company-owned restaurant locations before the close of 2010.
Jamba was assisted in the close of this sale by the Praetorian Group, franchise transaction specialists.
