The company sold a $700 Wi-Fi-enabled juicer, trying to solve a problem that did not exist. It also raised some $120 million and attracted a mountain of attention.
But on Friday, the firm said it was shutting operations — joining the hordes of other Silicon Valley start-ups that could not deliver business results to match the hype. Started by a health fanatic with a chequered history as an entrepreneur, Juicero devised an elaborate scheme to deliver small glasses of expensive cold pressed juice to kitchens around the country. The machine scanned codes printed on pouches of chopped produce to help assess the freshness of the contents inside. Doug Evans, the founder, hired engineers, food scientists and fashionable industrial designers to work alongside him.
The company was a particularly bold bid to capitalise on the hype around the so-called Internet of things and interest in the juice business. Mr. Evans believed there was a legion of customers who, once they tasted his juice, would find it superior to the many varieties that can be bought at convenience stores, juice bars or even Walmart.
Top venture capital firms, including Google’s venture capital spinoff and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as well as big companies like Campbell Soup, invested heavily in the company.
‘Nectar of the earth’
“Organic cold-pressed juice is rainwater filtered through the soil and the roots and the stems and the plants,” Mr. Evans told The New York Times last year. “You extract the water molecules, the chlorophyll, the anthocyanin and the flavonoids and the micronutrients. You’re getting this living nutrition. It’s like drinking the nectar of the earth.”
But from the start, there were signs that Juicero would struggle to succeed. The company slashed the price of its press after a few months. Plans for nationwide distribution were slow to materialize.
Bare hands
In October, Mr. Evans stepped down as chief executive and was replaced by Jeff Dunn, an experienced natural food executive. In April, Bloomberg published an article and video demonstrating that Juicero’s expensive and highly engineered press was essentially unnecessary. Reporters squeezed Juicero’s produce packs using their bare hands, and extracted just about the same amount of juice as they did using the press.
Last month, Juicero said it was working on further reductions to the price of the press and the pouches. But the company said it was unable to do this on its own and decided to shut down. It suggested it would look to sell itself to a bigger company.
“It became clear that creating an effective manufacturing and distribution system for a nationwide customer base requires infrastructure that we cannot achieve on our own as a stand-alone business,” Juicero said in a statement posted on its website. “We are confident that to truly have the long-term impact we want to make, we need to focus on finding an acquirer with an existing national fresh food supply chain who can carry forward the Juicero mission.”
Juicero said in the statement that it had sold more than 1 million produce packs. But it declined to offer other specifics about the business. Juicero offered refunds to anyone who bought a press.
Mr. Dunn, responding to an email inquiry on Friday, declined to answer questions. “I am slammed with investor calls back to back,” he wrote. “Not doing interviews today, but thanks.”
In its statement, Juicero also put on a brave face. “In a short period of time, you’ve validated that there is national demand for easier access to fresh produce and hassle-free cold-press juicing,” it said. NYT
