24-year old Sofia Fominova together with her husband opened cold-pressed juice bar in the heart of London. After several months LabOrganic made it to the top-5 list of juice bars according to Financial Times.

“Which juice would you like? COV-juice is good for your skin. It contains carrot, pineapple, turmeric, and lemon. Or we have a green juice containing spinach, broccoli, and lime,” greets Sofia her customers. The location opened on January 7, 2014. And as early as in May it’s made it to the top-5 list of the best London juice bars.

Sofia Fominova was born and grew up in Moscow. She studied at the London School of Economics and worked as the analyst in Prosperity Сapital Management, and as the marketing director in Synergy business school. The idea to open her own business came to her after the trip to Australia made with her husband Georgy Konyaschenkov. After that they conceived a passion for a healthy living style.

“In Australia there live the same Englishmen, but they are constantly thinking about their health. That’s why we decided that such lifestyle would perfectly fit the “English Englishmen”,” recalls 24-year old Georgy.

Cold-pressed juices became popular in Europe after they made a good name for themselves in Australia and USA. The hydraulic cold-press juicer produces juice with up to 5 times more minerals, vitamins and enzymes in comparison with the centrifugal juicing. “Healthy lifestyle fans are willing to give away everything they have in order to increase the amount of nutrients in their body,” assures Sofia while sitting at the table in her LabOrganic juice bar, one of the first locations in London to start serving cold-pressed juices.

First steps

When the couple began to consider their own business enterprise, there were no bars specializing exclusively in cold-pressed juices in London. It took them one and a half year to bring the idea to life and to open the bar.

The starting capital of £200,000 was made of their own savings and money borrowed from their parents. The first step was to purchase the necessary equipment — a special cold-press juicer which is available only in USA. The machine cost $3,500, and for its delivery they paid $1,000 more.

The second step was to develop the recipes. “Originally we’ve done everything by ourselves. We bought vegetables and fruits and tried to prepare dozens of juices at home. And it was a homemade product; it was fun and certainly healthy. We’ve drunk several liters of juices a day!” recalls Sofia.

For assistance the couple engaged a nutritionist who tested the ingredients for compatibility and advised what we should add or change. He’s told them a lot about vitamins and their properties. Of great significance was the feedback received from the parents, friends and acquaintances. “One of the most important stages for us was the so-called tasting party for our friends where we offered to try our juices. And everyone loved them! When you succeed in something, you start to move forward with the double speed, and begin to work even harder,” says the entrepreneur.

In LabOrganic they keep up with the philosophy that each juice has a different influence on human’s body. COV-juice, for instance, is good for the skin, as it contains carrot, pineapple, turmeric, orange, grapefruit, and lemon. Alcalising Juice helps to restore the acid-base balance thanks to the presence of such ingredients, as pear, cucumber, spinach, basil, parsley, mangold, broccoli, lime, celery, and romaine lettuce. Cold-pressed juicers help to refine the process of making the juice from the greens. To prepare half a liter of green juice it takes nearly 600 grams of the greens, whereas in the usual juice squeezer you can receive less than 250 ml of juice from the same amount of product.

The couple has been looking for a location for about five months. The target audience expected to be visitors of yoga and fitness centers. That’s why they considered three London districts — Kensington, Fulham Road and Covent Garden. Finally they decided on the location in Covent Garden situated in the center of touristic London. “We knew that we would be embraced here. There are a lot of vegan places in this area of London, for example, the well-known Niel’s Yard with an age-old history of organic cosmetics. Furthermore in XIX century there was the renowned vegetable market. In general, the atmosphere here is more than right,” adds Sofia. The rental price is £95,000 a year, which is a reasonable price for this neighborhood.

They spent £40,000 more to develop the design for the bar. While the bar was being remodeled, they have 3-4 months to order packaging, to prefect their recipes, and to deal with the payment system. “The major surprise at this stage is the opening of the corporate bank account. We had to stand up for the project at the bank, to detail the business plan, and to answer the myriad of questions concerning business development. We were really worried, but eventually they agreed to open the bank account for us,” cites the couple.

Healthy relations

Good ideas are fast to spread. Almost simultaneously with LabOrganic London saw the opening of several similar bars offering cold-pressed juices. “When we were opening, we were the less expensive bar in the market. We wished to inspire Londoners to embrace a healthy, organic diet which is really affordable. Now we are number two in low prices, but we’re not going to reduce our price,” says Fominova.

Photo: LabOrganic

350-ml bottle of juice in LabOrganic costs an average of £4.95, 500-ml bottle — £7. Today the bar offers over 20 kinds of juices. A couple of months ago the menu was expanded to include some vegan meals, including raw ingredients. According to the bar owner, the business is looking very good. To the end of the day the stocks of products are completely sold out.

After 10 months of work the businesswoman managed to achieve the break-even point. From the next month Sofia expects to make a profit of £1,000 per month, which she plans to invest in business development. The perspective is to open the second location in the heart of London in 2015. Today the bar is visited by 120-130 customers on a day-to-day basis; 80% of them are the regulars. “We know them by sight; we often chat and share news. From the very beginning I banked on such relations with clients. This gives me the confidence that we’ll be a great success at a new location,” she thinks.

“LabOrganic is an ingenuous paradise of health among the Covent Garden chaos,” says Saskia Gregson-Williams, regular customer of the bar, popular blogger, healthy eating specialist, and ballerina. “The food here contains the extreme amount of vitamins and nutrients. And this is the most delicious food I’ve ever tried. Breakfasts, desserts, and salads — I’m unable to resist the temptation to buy everything,” she adds.

The market is also forging ahead. By the end of the year there appeared almost ten similar places in London. In summer several American franchises joined them, including Press bar from Los-Angeles with Beverly Hills interior scene. The trend was even embraced by the supermarket chains which started to offer cold-pressed juices of private label. But soon most of them abandoned the idea, because such juices weren’t pasteurized and should be consumed within 24 hours.

Young entrepreneur is not concerned about the competition. “I really like the idea of health propaganda, and I always wanted to be helpful to the society.”