photo by Emily Moseley
Lexington vegetable-juice business brings healthy options to your door
Lexington, KY – Kimmye Bohannon was looking for a health boost, but it didn’t take long for her to recognize a new business opportunity.
Bohannon, who had become familiar with the benefits of drinking vegetable juice at trendy juice bars in New York, wanted to add the healthful beverages to her daily regimen. Squeezing the nutrients out of fresh veggies such as kale, carrots and beets can be a labor-intensive process, and she began last fall by pooling her efforts with a neighbor. Soon more friends were asking if they could share in the fruits of her labor, and within months, what began with a few friends had grown to a customer base of 100 weekly subscribers for her fast-growing Lexington business, The Weekly Juicery.
Bohannon, who most recently has worked as a private consultant after spending 14 years working in financial management with JPMorgan, got the idea for her juice-delivery business after reading an article in a yoga magazine about a soup-delivery business in Vermont. To share the health benefits of her vegetable juices, Bohannon decided she would make it convenient by signing customers up by the week and delivering her drinks right to their doorsteps.
“People really are looking for an easy way to be healthy and make healthy choices,” Bohannon said. “If you just do it one time, you don’t really get the benefit of juicing.”
The response has been greater than Bohannon expected. For $35 per week, customers receive a morning delivery of glass bottles filled with 16 ounces of fresh and mostly organic vegetable juice for four days, from Monday through Thursday. The company’s local delivery zone includes both homes and businesses in downtown Lexington, along with the Chevy Chase and Ashland Park neighborhoods and parts of the University of Kentucky’s campus.
“It’s sort of like the milkman of days gone by,” Bohannon said. “Delivery is a lost art in business. It’s tricky to make work, and a lot of people have abandoned it, but our customers really appreciate the service.”
