2002
JUST OPENED RUE VERTÉ
Before JOE & THE JUICE existed, Kaspar Basse worked in an advertising agency. Inspired by food & beverage concepts like Starbucks and cafés in clothing stores, he asked his two good friends about opening a café & juice bar in their clothing store Rue Verté on Ny Østergade in central Copenhagen. Basse and his cousin Morten “Morty” Basse made a presentation for their parents. Morty’s parents thought it was a bad idea and pointed out that he needed to finish his education but Basse was very determined to open with or without Morty.
Eventually, Morty travelled to Nice to work as a chef while Basse opened the first JOE & THE JUICE store in Rue Verté alone. Morty returned to Denmark after 3 months and started immediately working as the second employee in the store.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF JOE & THE JUICE STORE
From his own recollection, Basse did not really know how to run the newly opened store. It was a whole new experience for him. The store did not look anything like it does today. There was no preparation or fruit display of any sort. A Coca Cola fridge with sodas, beers and fruit was standing in the corner of the bar. There was liquor on the shelves for special guests and an ashtray for the guests who sat smoking at the bar. Let’s just say it was very different from how it is today.
In the start, Basse was the only one working in the bar. It was not busy at all. When there was nothing to do he would practice a Karaté-split. Finally, when guests entered the store they would find Basse on the floor of the bar practising his splits.
03
THE JOE HAND SHAKE
To emphasise the feeling of comradeship between the people behind the bar, a handshake-ritual was invented. The rule was that you had to perform the handshake ritual to everyone upon entering the bar. It gave a sense of belonging to JOE & THE JUICE and a secret routine that proved that you were a part of something unique. This handshake carried on for some years but was forgotten about with time. If you are lucky you might get to see it one day. Ask some of the old guys of JOE if they remember how to perform the JOE handshake.
04
PIPPO JOINED
One day Philip “Pippo” Finsteen entered the store in Rue Verté. He was looking for a job after his time in Milano and became attracted to the interior design of the store as well as the healthy concept. Pippo soon proved to be a remarkable person with his positive attitude, infinite energy and sense of care for both the store and guests. He changed Basse’s view from focusing on products to a focus on the people instead. It was quite different from what other concepts did but the results are around us in every store to this day.
Pippo became the definition of the ‘Juicer ideal’ we know of today and we continuously strive to inspire Juicers to follow his legacy.
MUSIC
Music has always been a key component of any JOE & THE JUICE store. The music covered the noise from the blenders and centrifuge so the guests could become pleasantly entertained by the music instead. It also made the Juicers behind the bar more energetic and work with a faster tempo which was needed to suit the traffic of guests.
05
SEB AND THE JOB OFFER
Sebastian Vestergaard was hired in 2005. Legend has it that Basse went to a grocery store and at the register sat a young man with a different attitude which appealed to Basse. That young guy was Sebastian. Basse paid for his groceries and said; “Hey, do you want a job in Denmark’s coolest juice shop”? Seb looked up and replied instantly: “I have a job! – I like it here.” Basse handed him a piece of paper with an email address on and said, “Write down why you like your job and send it to this email address.” Seb did this and was asked to show up at Rue Verté where he was offered a job.
Upon visiting JOE, Seb realised that his job at the grocery store was boring in comparison. He worked as a Juicer until he became the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of JOE & THE JUICE at the age of 33 years old.
06
3 NEW STORES AND THE FIRST OFFICE
JOE & THE JUICE opened three more stores (Bremerholm, Aarhus & Lyngby) in different Magasin department stores. With the new stores, the management also increased and with it the need of an office space. Basse used his own apartment as ‘the office’ to start off with and many of the meetings were held on the floor. Here the management discussed operational focus areas, expansion plans, planned budgets and made shiftplans together. This was the first indication of the company is going to grow in the fast pace in the years to come.
09
NEW HQ ON GRØNNEGADE
This was the first real office for JOE & THE JUICE. Located right in the exclusive end of Copenhagen, it was a beautiful and spacious office which would serve us well for many years during a significant expansion period for the company. It became the HQ where Basse could showcase to everyone that we are a serious company.
FIRST STORE IN NORWAY
A Juicer trained from Pippo’s Academy in 2010 became the Country Manager of Norway and opened the first store in Oslo. This proved that it was very possible for any person to work hard for JOE & THE JUICE to eventually become partner and a Country Manager. It also shows the faith that JOE & THE JUICE gives to young people. To give a person the highest position and responsibility after just 2 years is unique.
This is something that repeats itself throughout the JOE History – the constant belief in the youth and in personal development. We nurture talents from the inside and therefore self-sufficiently build our brand.
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13
NEW OWNERSHIP
To fulfil the ever-growing ambitions of JOE & THE JUICE, we teamed up with a private equity fund - Valedo. Valedo is a Swedish capital fund who specialise in medium-sized companies and helps them reach their goals. Due to the new partnership with Valedo, a new and even more ambitious expansion plan was set, with 250 stores by the end of 2017.
15
FRANCE, SINGAPORE, SOUTHKOREA, Hong Kong & US
2015 was one of the busiest years in the expansion. 5 new markets were opened. Although 4 of them were franchise, it was a great strain on the entire company because the best Juicers and SWATs were required to help start up each market.
Each person who was sent out to help support this aggressive expansion developed tremendously during this time. So, even though it was a tough period for the other markets, through this experience, we nurtured a lot of Juicers who were ready to take their next step in the company. Most of them are in leading positions today.
The opening of Spring St would determine whether or not we as a brand could seriously compete internationally and essentially become the brand that Kaspar Basse had always dreamed of.As we know the Spring St opening was a huge success that really relieved the entire organisation from the anxiety of hitting the wall. This made us even more focused on becoming a huge success in the US and gave us further momentum as we prepared for the most aggressive expansion ever in 2017.
100 Stores miami vice party
A huge party was held to celebrate the opening of 100 stores for JOE & THE JUICE.
BRAND PURPOSE
After many years of running JOE THE JUICE with different partners, we had gained a lot of success and the organisation had grown to a size that was now more difficult to keep everyone closely connected and aligned. Kaspar Basse wanted to ensure that we as a brand and company did not forget why we do things as we do. He wanted to protect the brand from decisions that would dilute our position and momentum. So, together with the key management, he formulated our brand purpose with dogmas to always remind ourselves of who we are and fundamentally unify us all with a very specific goal; “Be on the cover of Rolling Stones Magazine.”
BRAND BEHAVIOUR BECOMES FORMULATED
Brand Behaviour is a person’s natural behaviour towards the other person because they want to be this way. So, Basse, Pippo, Tom & Schyberg came up with the concept of ‘Saturday Night Dinner Host’, which was an ideal that transcends through everything that we do in JOE & THE JUICE and could be operationalised.
16
GENERAL ATLANTIC STRATEGIC GROWTH
General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies. Established in 1980, General Atlantic combines a collaborative global approach, sector-specific expertise, long-term investment horizon, and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great management and build exceptional businesses worldwide. The firm has a differentiated track record of partnering with leading global brands such as Airbnb, Axel Springer, Barteca Holdings, Klarna, Too Faced Cosmetics, Tory Burch, Uber, and Zimmermann. General Atlantic has more than 100 investment professionals based in New York, Greenwich, Palo Alto, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, London, Munich, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Singapore.
FIRST GLOBAL SHOW OFF
In 2017 we were throwing the first and biggest event in the history of JOE - the Global ShowOff! Each market have had a local ShowOff and the winner of each of these competitions was flown to Denmark to compete for the title of ShowOff KING or QUEEN.
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MIAMI, LA, CHICAGO & WASHINGTON
2017 was a big year for the US expansion. 4 new states (markets) were opened. This roll outlays the foundation for the 2020 Expansion Plan.
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STRONG EXPANSION ON THE WEST COAST AND IN NEW YORK, US.
2018 was a year largely defined by our continued expansion in the US. We opened our first store in San Diego as well as 8 new stores in both San Francisco and New York – firmly manifesting our legacy in the US market.
FIRST OPENING IN THE NETHERLANDS
In Summer 2018 we celebrated our first opening in the Netherlands and going into 2019 our European expansion counted 6 new stores in the Netherlands.
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FOOD WASTE APP
We’ve built our own Food Waste App in-house which means we can track all our waste and stay best in class. We’ve got our waste game down! Only 2% of our waste goes in the bin. This is due to us making everything to order. Fresh is best.
The JOE & THE JUICE APP is a convenient way to pay in-store or pre-order ahead for pickup. Start collecting points with every purchase and receive built-in rewards such as free juice, coffee and much more.