Joe History

2001

PRE-OPENING

Before JOE & THE JUICE existed, Kaspar Basse worked in an advertising agency but
was bought out of the company. Kaspar did not really know what to do next but knew he
wanted to do something much different from the advertisement industry. Inspired by
food & beverage concepts like Starbucks and cafés in clothing stores, he asked his two good
friends Julie Brandt and Michala Jessen 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 traveled 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.

2002

JUST OPENED RUE VERTÉ

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 practicing his splits.

JUICE PHILOSOPHY

Kaspar Basse bought a bunch of juice books to learn everything there was to know
about mixing different fruit and vegetables. He became obsessed with the ideology of
making juices that formed as a liquid vitamin pill. Intrigued by the knowledge of
synergist and antagonist (Vitamins that enhance each other’s effect and vitamins
that obstruct each other’s effects), Basse started to create juice with synergistic effects
in mind. The focus was to combine two vitamins that actually improved each other’s
effect. This is how the names of each juice were inspired, from one enhanced vitamin in
the juice. For example, in the ‘Iron Man,’ the iron-mineral and the C-vitamin are synergists
that boost the effects of the iron-mineral.

Later this inspired the ‘Juice Manifest’ which are the 3 entities that destroy the vitamins:

– Temperature

– Light

– Oxygen

In contrast to ‘Cold Press’, our juice philosophy is about taking a piece of fresh fruit
or vegetable, press it, and then immediately drink it. Freshly pressed juice begins to lose its
nutritional benefit after 20 minutes, so our juices are crafted to be consumed on the
spot. Cold press is pressed slower which exposes it to oxygen for a longer period but
then stands on shelves for days before it is even consumed.

100 AND 15 JUICES’ NIGHT

In the start, the juice menu was not set. It changed with the seasons and when Basse
decided to create a new exciting juice recipe or wanted a juice with an intended
nutritional benefit. Basse still talks about his rhubarb, apple, and ginger juice (although
he can’t remember the name). Eventually, this was changed with ingredients we could
serve year-round and to somewhat resembles the menu we have today. So, some of our
legendary juices were already created in 2002, for example, the ‘Go Away Doc’. Other
juices are still here but in another version such as the ‘Energizer’, which was originally
with red grapefruit, apple & vanilla powder or the ‘Pick Me Up’, which was with raspberry,
apple & pineapple.

THE FIRST SANDWICHES

The sandwich was created with the idea of making a simple, delicate and fresh
Mediterranean styled sandwich. It needed to be ‘exquisite’ with the quality while
remaining informal by making it easy to eat without cutlery and plates. With Morty’s
previous chef experiences, Basse and Morty created four sandwiches:

AVOCADO SANDWICH
Avocado, tomato, Manchego cheese and regular pesto

AUBERGINE SANDWICH
Slow cooked aubergines, tomatoes, Manchego cheese and sundried tomato pesto

SERRANO SANDWICH
Serrano ham, tomato, Manchego cheese and regular pesto

TUNA SANDWICH
Tuna Mousse, tomato and pesto

The store did not have the proper tools to prepare the pesto, slow-cooked aubergines
or the tuna mousse. So, every morning Morty would prepare all these ingredients in his
own apartment and then bring it down to the store where Basse stood waiting for the
ingredients. The sandwiches were made on demand in front of the guest but they would
often run way short of the ingredients they needed before the day was over.

THE GENIUS ANATOMY OF THE SANDWICH

The genius about our sandwiches are their anatomy which we did not quite realise from
the beginning. The anatomy of the thin bread as a crispy shell wrapped around
the simplicity of fresh acidic tomatoes, the savoury meat and cheese, the soft fatty texture
of the avocado and the harmony of the pesto all fuse to create the umami taste of the
sandwich. Basse still brags about our sandwiches to this day; “if you make the
sandwich correct then you cannot argue against it being the Best Sandwich in the World”.

THE BREAD DELIVERY

The original bread used for the sandwich was from a small bakery in Copenhagen.
Basse’s mum would pick up the bread from the bakery and deliver to store every day in
her car. Apparently, years after she stopped delivering she could still not get rid of the
heavy bread smell from her car. Eventually, the bread delivery was replaced by a delivery
man who would usually arrive too late and most of the time after the lunch rush had
ended. Basse looked at him and said; “It’s a bit too late to receive the bread after the
lunch rush! What do you want me to do with this bread now?”

THE LITTLE ICE MACHINE

To make the juice, ice cubes were needed so a small ice machine was bought and
placed in the stockroom. It produced two ice cubes every hour meaning they had to wait
until there was enough ice to make the juice for the guest. Two thudding bumps would
sound out of the stockroom then Basse knew that he could now make the next juice.
The first real industrial ice machine was introduced a couple of years later when
the demand for juice increased.

THE MAGIC COFFEE MACHINE

What most people don’t realise, even to this day, is that the first half of the company
name is coffee (JOE – slang for black coffee). Basse always intended JOE & THE JUICE
to include a coffee universe and ambience which guests would want to return to.
Knowing that coffee wasn’t just coffee but something that could be made in a thousand
different ways, Basse bought the ‘magic coffee machine’ which with one button could
make ‘exotic coffee’ such as espresso, cappuccino, latte, macchiato and regular coffee.
At that time, this machine was super sophisticated and top of the line but most
definitely, it is not considered the standard for coffee today.

Later Basse needed to make a decisive decision to change our approach to a more
specialised way through the introduction of the espresso machines we use today. This
was an important road chosen because it would later define our entire coffee approach.

LOGO AND THOUGHTS

The ambition of making a café wasn’t enough for Basse. He wanted to have a
recognisable logo to represent his ambition. There were a lot of drafts with different
ideas and motifs such as, a cup of coffee, a dog, the JOE-man with a face, and
background colours of red, orange, purple and blue.

The logo that Basse went with is the logo you know today but before making the final
decision, there was a draft of a JOE-logo with a face. This was not chosen because
Basse did not want the brand to be personified by its logo, so it remained without a face.

The reason Basse did not choose a picture of a coffee, coffee bean, a juice or fruits, as
his logo was that it’s not about the products but rather about the people. This shows he
already had this sense of feeling from the start.

THE GINGER BAM

The invention of the famous Ginger Shot came from Basse. He once felt a bit sick with a
sore throat so he grabbed a small handful of ginger, pressed it with half an apple and
took it as a shot. Surprised by its spicy taste and pure form he instantly loved it. The
sickness reversed after a couple of days and the funny saying “a ginger-shot a day
keeps the doctor away” was the new quote behind the bar.

The shot became for him a ritual he would follow every day but more significantly he
also invited his guests to join in for a shot with him. This was the earliest indication of
the JOE behaviour to set us apart from others which many years later we gave the name
inclusion. Still to this day, many cannot go without that ginger shot.

STICKERS

The cups which we served our juice and coffee in were of a generic format. To improve
them visually, the JOE & THE JUICE sticker was made. For many years, we would spend
hours each day putting stickers on every cup. Ironically, for many years we also had to
take stickers off every apple! Even though the stickers were originally a cheap substitute
for making our own cups, after we introduced our own cups with logo on, we still kept
the stickers because kids and teenagers loved them. To this day the stickers are a big
part of our concept as you can see with our pictures and local branding initiatives.

THE BEGINNING OF A ‘ROCK ‘N’ ROLL CULTURE’

What Kaspar Basse did not know at this time was that, aside from creating an
alternative café concept, he was also about to give birth to a youth culture. The culture
of JOE was soon to be about personal development through liberating yourself from
what is normal and to be able to do it in your own way. Basse’s eccentric mind-set
helped build that attitude and together with future hired Juicers, he was about to have a
worldwide community based on social engagement and healthy competition with each
other regarding who is best at Turnover, Flair, Latte Art, Loyalty Cards and more.

2003

SNOOP & “LILLE JOE”

Kasper “Snoop” Svingholm was hired in 2003. Basse knew him from his previous job in
advertising. As Snoop was hired, Basse introduced a new initiative called ‘Lille JOE’
(Danish for Little JOE). The store was still not doing much in turnover at this point
and only one person was behind the bar at a time, so there was a need to think outside the box.

The idea was to send out this local person to befriend all employees of the shops and
offices nearby to the JOE store. It was kind of like a ‘local hero’ who knew everyone and
helped out the community. Ordering sheets were handed out, collected and then Snoop
would go back to the JOE store to make the orders before bringing them back to the shops.

With time this initiative was shut down because the store became busier so instead
Snoop was told to stay in during the lunch rush to help the person in the bar. The
awareness and interest for JOE & THE JUICE improved most likely because of the ‘Lille
JOE’ initiative, which eventually boosted the turnover of the store. This was the
transition towards being more than one behind the bar and having an actual ‘Lunch Rush’.

THE FLAIR OF GLASS JUICE CUPS

Already back then, Basse was experimenting with flaring and the guest experience. He
made a rule that meant every time a Juicer grabbed a juice cup, which was placed on a
shelf behind the bar, they had to throw and catch it behind their back. The cups at that
time were made out of glass and therefore shattered every time they did not catch
the juice cup. Most days shattered glass was all over the floor of the bar.

THE JOE HANDSHAKE

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.

THE LIST

In the start, there were so few orders that the Juicers behind the bar could memorise
every order they received but with time they needed to write these orders down. First a
big piece paper was printed out with squares which would be read horizontally like a
book from left to right. Most of the time they forgot to print out this order paper so as an
emergency quick fix solution they took a till roll and used that as the list instead. This
proved to be a genius mishap. It was much more intuitional because it read from the top
and down. In addition, the till roll had ink in its paper which made us able to quickly
cross out the products with a finger when they had been completed. Today the list is our
central communication tool for performing as a team behind the bar.

2004

ENTER THE PIPPO

One day Philip “Pippo” Finsteen entered the store in Rue Verté. He was looking for a job
after his model career 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. This realisation came from one specific episode that forever cemented
Pippo’s value for JOE & THE JUICE.

Pippo was asked to be responsible for the Rue Verté bar on a Saturday (the most
important turnover day) while Kaspar Basse went to a family birthday. Pippo was so
determined about being in charge of the bar and proving a point, that he came in 1 hour
earlier than usual to prep the bar (cut up all fruits and vegetables). When Snoop came in
that morning he was furious with Pippo for prepping so much, which he believed, would
be wasted. Although by the end of the day their normal Saturday turnover had tripled.
This is why we prep as we do today! There was also another aspect that Pippo
introduced to JOE differently which his naturally authentic behaviour towards the guests
and how he made every single person a part of the experience.

Pippo became the definition of the ‘Juicer ideal’ we know of today and we continuously
strive to inspire Juicers to follow his legacy.

THE 1st EXPANSION AND MOBILE BAR IN THE METRO

Basse’s ambitions for the company lay not only within 1 store, so he loaned money from
his mum to finance the opening of the 2nd store ‘Kongens Nytorv’ in the Magasin
department store. The impact of this 2nd opening was huge in terms of the; increase in
traffic compared to the 1stJOE store, how we had to drastically change our way of
working behind the bar and of course, the new Juicers who had to be hired and trained.
All of this called for testing on how to make JOE more efficient with serving guests fast,
which eventually lead towards the introduction of pre-made products.

Another experiment alongside the opening of the 2nd store was a mobile mini bar where
we sold pre-made juice, sandwich and coffee. We brought the heavy mobile bar, stacked
up with products and a fruit display, down the escalator to the metro station next to
Kongens Nytorv every morning. Transporting this bar was a challenge in itself because
sometimes the mobile bar tilted on the escalator with all the products falling onto the
floor then having to bring it all up to re-fill once again. The guys would usually draw
straws about who would take the mobile bar for the day because during the winter in
Copenhagen it would be freezing cold and you stood alone. A funny story once was that
a teenager stole a pineapple from the bar so the Juicer had to chase him down to get it
back but when he returned to the bar all products and money had been stolen too.

ICELANDIC PARTNERS IN JOE/INTRODUCTION TO PRE–MADE SANDWICHES & OTHER EXTERNAL PRODUCTS

In 2004, JOE & The Juice teamed up with Icelandic partners to help Basse’s vision of
expanding JOE further across Denmark with focus on the other Magasin department
stores. With the introduction of the Icelandic partners, initiatives of pre-made
sandwiches and other external products such as ice cream, ciders, bagels, cakes etc.
were implemented to the stores as a test to see how they would work. Sandwiches were
prepared in the early morning and sold throughout the day. This method was removed in 2006.

FERNET BRANCA ON SATURDAYS

The stores at this time still had liquor but it was only for particular special guests who
came in. One of the liquors became mythologised through a Saturday ritual in the bar.
The rule was that every hour you had to take a Fernet Branca shot, by the end of the day
Pippo and Snoop were completely wasted. After they closed the store they went out
partying the rest of the night.

THE NAME

When orders were made, they were called out by the name of the products. The problem
with this was that if we yelled, “Pick Me Up” 3 guests would come up at the same time
causing a lot of confusion. As a solution to this, instead of handing out number receipts
we took the guest’s name. This proved handy with time because taking the name made
us socialise with the guest even more and gave us an opportunity to remember their
name for next time. This was another early indication of the inclusion approach from
JOE which would continue to set us apart from others.

VOLUME MUSIC

Music has always been a key component of any JOE & THE JUICE store and with the
increased traffic on Saturdays the volume of the music was naturally turned up more.
The music covered the noise from the blenders and centrifuge so the guests could
become more influenced 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. Basse later referred the volume of the music as the “the turnover button”.

2005

THE LOYALTY CARDS

The creation of Loyalty cards started as a discount solution for our most loyal guests
asking for a discount because of their frequent visits. The cards were never really
thought much of by the management or the Juicers. No one thought of selling them
because the assumption was that we would turnover less that way. So, the cards were
hidden under the till and never really used unless guests asked about a discount and if
they did we would almost argue them not to buy a card.

One day a BM (Kasper Schyberg) was told to step up his performance. In despair of
what to do the BM tried to sell the Loyalty Cards to everyone, thinking that it would only
spike the turnover for one week and then next it would drop. The result was actually the
opposite of that. The turnover continuously rose week after week. The realisation was
that selling a Loyalty Card changed the guest’s behaviour to go to JOE more frequently.
So, if a loyal guest came in 3 times a week it changed to 4-5 times a week because they
had a mindset of the products being for ‘free’ when they had the card. As soon as this
discovery was made, the selling of Loyalty quickly became an art form to some and
eventually competitions started between the bars for bragging rights about their supremacy.

What we also later realised was that by selling a Loyalty Card, you are also selling the
idea of investing into our JOE universe. Meaning, you likewise sell the experience, The Look,
the music and the personal relation between the guest and Juicer with every card.
It is a key indicator for the store to prove that it has created this strong universe.

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 C.F.O. (Chief Financial Officer)
of JOE & THE JUICE at the age of 23 years old, while also educating himself at the same time.

2006

THE REMOVAL OF PRE-MADE AND EXTERNAL PRODUCTS

During this period, JOE started to re-assess its entire product making processes with a
stronger consideration towards the value of quality & honesty within the concept of
health. The sandwiches were a good example of this realisation.  All the pre-made
products were removed from the menu because it was clear that it would not make any
sense within the brand of JOE & THE JUICE to have them. It was simply not okay to
serve a sandwich in the late afternoon when it was prepared 8-10 hours ago. This was a
clear shift towards being as fresh as we could be in everything that we prepare for our
guests to keep our transparency and honesty towards what we do as a company.
The sandwich became the thin and crispy that we know of today.

Another key point from this decision was the counter-reaction it made. ‘Forcing’
the Juicers to make juice, sandwich and coffee on demand made it more challenging to
work behind the bar. This raised the level of skill required to serve guests and made it
more stimulating to work behind the bar, essentially making the job more fun.

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 becoming more
professional and refined, especially after the removal of external products.

WORKPLANNER 1.0

On the floor of Basse’s apartment, the management had to plan their budgets and
shiftplans together. The learning from that later became the first version of the
‘Workplanner’ in 2009. This was an important step because it developed the backend
infrastructure of the company to allow us to continuously focus on what we became
successful from – the focus on the people.

2007

TRAINING PROGRAMS

Still, at this point, there were no training programs written down about how to work in JOE
& THE JUICE. The knowledge was passed from person to person but it was not a
problem in 2007 because the management and Basse were very close to the few stores
they had. Later, the problem became that a lot of the knowledge was lost or forgotten
about because there were no official programs to refer to. These programs were first produced in 2010!

This also proves that we could be successful even without training programs because
our main focus was about giving a different experience. It was not a specific experience
we wanted – instead, we gave the freedom for the Juicers to be creative themselves.
This approach made it more authentic to visit a JOE store, hence the success that we
had at this early stage.

NEW DESIGN – WONDER WOOD

The store design changed when we teamed up with a company called Wonder Wood to
build our stores. This was the first real clear design, defining how a JOE & THE JUICE
store looks. Michala from Rue Verté also helped with the design and furniture.

2008

FOCUS ON AMBIENCE

We started to differentiate between good and bad performing stores with more focus
upon the ‘Ambience’ that existed in each store. This mysterious term that captured the
feeling of how it was to visit a store was a major focus for Basse to operationalise. It
was difficult to say, back then, exactly what ambience was but it was quite clear that it
was the X-factor that made us stand out in comparison to our competitors. Pippo, who
was more in charge of the operation now, hired people based on their personality more
than their professional experience. His interviews consisted of more discussion
towards the person’s family relations and values than typical interview questions. Pippo
also spent a lot of time visiting all the bars regularly to spread the love by working hard
and leading by example to inspire everyone to work with the same positive energy and approach.

FAIRS

To bring out the Brand further JOE & THE JUICE decided to test out making pop-up bars
on different fairs such as the famous “Copenhagen Fashion Fair”. The first fair proved to
be a great success that gave us confidence to say that this concept could handle being
very busy. We now understood how to run a store efficiently but we still did not write it
down. It gave Basse the ambition to say we are ready to go international with JOE & THE JUICE.

FIRST FRANCHISE EVALD & GARNELL

Developing and exposing a brand takes a lot of time and many stores. In the early
stages, our expansion was very slow and took a lot of effort to open a new store. Basse
tried for the first time to introduce a franchise solution to his brand. Two guys, Thomas
Evald and Kasper Garnell became the first franchise partners. They opened their first
store in Fields and later expanded with 3 more stores.

They were later bought back to create an organic organisational structure that helped
expanding to Sweden.

OPENING THE LAST MAGASIN STORES

The final part of the initial expansion plan came through with the openings of Rødovre,
Odense and Fields. These stores were not instant successes but with time they would prove their worth.

FIRST CUPS WITH LOGO ON AND NEW COFFEE UNIVERSE COLOURS

Finally, the juice and coffee cups were conceptualised with logo and colours. This was
another step towards creating the coffee universe we know of today. The colours of
grey, purple, yellow and pink were introduced to signify the size of the coffee. Just like
Starbucks has done, where people call a large latte “Vendi”, Basse’s ambition behind
this move was to eventually create such a strong coffee universe in JOE, that people
would instead go into Starbucks and order a “Pink Latte”. Before this change, the coffee cups were just plain brown/grey and we had to put stickers on each one.

NEW HQ ON GOTHERSGADE

Instead of using Basse’s apartment as an office space JOE & THE JUICE moved into our
first “real” office. It was very small with only 2 rooms but also used to store broken /
spare furniture & equipment. Basse needed the office to do all the administration work
but hated the tiny office, so he always had his meetings in the stores such as Bremerholm.

2009

OPERATIONAL STRUCTURES AND A NEW ORDER SYSTEM

After a great performance which made the Bremerholm store rise to new heights, Tom Carney was promoted to help structure the operation. He immediately implemented a new order system, which meant that the BMs only had to count & receive deliveries twice per week. The purpose behind that change was to have a better control between the goods we ordered and stock kept at the bars.

Up until this point the BMs had individual logins to order all goods themselves, which they had to do every day of the week for the delivery to arrive the following day. This caused a lot of problems because very often BMs would forget to place their orders resulting in missing a lot of stock.

The implementation of the ordering system was the next step towards becoming more structured as a company and gaining better control of our key numbers (KPIs).

INTRODUCTION OF CLEANING TASKS – BEGINNING E-SMILEY

The cleaning structures were just like the ‘Wild West’ up to this stage. We had a yearly called for a better system which would keep the stores consistently clean and it easier to maintain the hygiene standards day to day. The ‘Weekly & Daily Cleaning Tasks’ were introduced to all stores with many objections from the BMs & Juicers, who felt it would be a lot more work for them, but with great effort, it was implemented over the course of 1-2 years. To our surprise, we learned how to actually clean the appliances such as the dishwasher and ice machine, something we had not known for all this time. This system was also the beginning of the E-Smiley system we use today on the iPad.

2ONTILL

2onTill is still to this day our most important till system. It was developed and refined by Frederik Rosenstand, who at that time was the BM of Bremerholm. Rosenstand grew into a weekly ‘turnover battle’ with Thomas Evald’s bar Fields, a franchise store at that time. They competed for achieving the highest turnover on Saturdays. Every Saturday they called each other up to brag about how much turnover they had made and what their best peak hours were. The competition often included a bet, for the pride and
bragging rights until next Saturday. It was constantly about trying to push the limits of how well you could run a bar to perform.

Inspired by the fact that Bremerholm had two tills, Rosenstand experimented with having 2 on the till at the same time ”1 writing, 1 typing”. He discovered that it was much faster for a Juicer to take all orders on a list and have the 2nd Juicer only take the payment. It proved to revolutionize our view on how fast we could take the queue and how many guests we could handle at the same time.

Another ‘roll off affect’ this had was to challenge us again to figure out faster ways to produce our products. Rosenstand shared his newly discovered knowledge with Evald and together they continued to challenge each other to perform even better in their respective bars and further develop the system.

With time, we saw another benefit from being 2onTill. BMs still only using one Juicer on till bragged about being so good on Saturdays that they had no guests leave the queue the entire day because they were super-fast. One day Kaspar Basse replied back to this frequent BM statement; “Yes, but tell me this… How many potential guests do you think passed the store and did not even consider to enter JOE because of the long queue?” Basse’s question opened-up everyone’s eyes to have a new perspective on store performance and resulting in more focus with 2onTill on Saturdays. We witnessed that the faster we executed the queue, the busier we actually became. This is because the fewer people there are in a queue, the more potential guests you attract to go into our store under the presumption that it is not busy.

THE INDIA MEETING

A wealthy investor from India contacted Kaspar Basse. He wanted to franchise JOE & THE JUICE in India with 100 stores. Basse was excited about this proposition and invited Pippo & Morty down to India to meet with the investor. It was planned that Morty would run the franchise in India to ensure that JOE kept its values in such a foreign country. The deal went off and the ambition of going to India ended abruptly because the investors’ intentions turned out to be very much against our values.

INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION + 1st AIRPORT

It was time for JOE to take the next step in its expansion outside of Denmark and to more of an international audience. This expansion was very important for Kaspar Basse because it would prove that the brand was strong enough and ready for international exposure. The test spot needed to be in a place close to Denmark but still with an international environment and strong competition. The place was London, with Regent Street chosen to be the first store to make a real statement about our ambitions. Pippo and Morty moved to London to start it up. It proved to be a big challenge for us as a company to accustom ourselves to the new market and slowed us down in our immediate expansion because of our struggles in London. We accepted that it would be premature to open further stores until we had a stronger operation in place. Keep in mind, that we still did not have training programs for our Juicers.

Another important opening was the Copenhagen Airport store. This was also a considerably different challenge to organise, structure and execute for us. The challenge of making the Airport store work efficiently took many years but the learning we took from that has improved all stores since. This is especially the case as seen with our preparation for the openings of NYC, Sydney and San Francisco. Again a very important step and experience that made us able to improve the brand to be ready internationally.

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.

2010

NEW OWNERSHIP – JOHAN WEDELL – WEDELLSBORG – FIRST STRATEGY 100 STORES

In 2010, Basse was determined to expand JOE even further to tell the world that we are
in fact the original with our concept. He therefore teamed up with his long-time friend
Johan Wedell-Wedellsborg and bought out the Icelandic investors. The new ambitious
strategy was to have 100 stores.

NEW STORE DESIGN – “PARTY PER”

With Johan’s investment, we now had more resources to develop our store design, so
“Party Per” Krogsgaard was hired in to design a new store look. This decision also
included us taking on the task of building all stores ourselves instead of a professional
company. As usual, this proved to be a much harder task than expected and gave us
many difficulties along the way. Nevertheless, Basse was eventually very impressed
with the new store design.

ACADEMY SCHOOL INITIATIVE

After the new strategy was set, the need for Juicers to support the expansion increased
significantly. The number of Juicers needed was out of proportion compared to the
number of stores we had to train the new recruits in. So, Pippo was assigned to create a
platform to facilitate the high demand of Juicers. He used the basement of the store
Østerbrogade before it was opened, set-up 2 bars and the rest of the equipment to form
the ‘Academy’. Here he trained 3 teams a day with 8 Juicers on each team from 06.00 in
the morning to 23.00 at night. The positive energy from Pippo rubbed off and inspired
many of the Juicers to become very ambitious. Many of who have gone on to have
successful careers in JOE and even sit at top management today.

Pippo trained Juicers for 8 months straight and came up with these legendary sayings
that we still use to this day such as; “IMS – Ingredients, Measure, Sequence”, “Crispy
and thin is the way to begin
”, “One apple more, one less store” & “Choose your attitude,
don’t be rude
”. Another aspect of this was the huge cultural impact that the Academy
made for JOE & THE JUICE.

When the Danish expansion slowed down and the running costs became too high, it
was decided to close-down the Academy to instead test out more cost-efficient
methods for training Juicers. The initiative was later re-established in New York to help
support the heavy expansion in US 2017.

FIRST STEP TOWARDS RAPID EXPANSION

The first step in the ambitious expansion plan was to open 3 stores (Vesterbro, Gl.
Kongevej & Østerbrogade) in the same week. We made it work but because of the heavy
task to do it all ourselves, many mistakes and learnings were made along the way. This
eventually becomes a key factor in our decision as to why we gave out the building task
to a professional company by the end of 2011.

FIRST BM PROGRAM

More stores meant more BMs in JOE and this lead to a lot of problems. Up until now, the
top management was able to be very close with every BM and the operation in general.
With the significant increase in stores and BMs, we exposed a lot of weaknesses which
we were once able to fix through immediate presence. Many BMs failed miserably
through not having the necessary training to run a store on their own, resulting in stores
having low performance. Still, at this time Juicers were promoted to BMs from one day
to another with no significant training. For example: “Here is your login to Workplanner
and this is how you count.
” That was it for the training.

The consequence of this was a lot of resources being spent on doing ‘turn-around’
projects to achieve the right standards for JOE & THE JUICE. It was time to make a BM
Program that would train and develop the BMs to perform. So, Tom Carney with the help
of good BMs and experts in their fields created the first BM Training Program. This was
a huge step towards creating the entire training platform for every position in the bar. A
lot of other training programs were created after this, such as XonShift and the Shift
Manager Program. All these programs were later rewritten and refined in 2017 when the
entire training platform needed to become more advanced, up to date and aligned with the MoneyBall.

2011

RISE OF THE SWAT

Basse had for a long time brainstormed about a position in JOE that would have
the mission of doing turnaround tasks for stores with low performance. He thought of many
different names such as ´Task Force’ or ‘Firefighter’ but eventually decided on the name ´SWAT´.

SWAT was the perfect name for an Elite BM who did not have any specific bar but was
instead situated at the HQ, ready to be dispatched to a store that needed to be fixed
and then leaves again afterwards. The problem was that there was no one to take that
position. Tom Carney was assigned the task to build up this new SWAT role. He
eventually discovered a guy who was able to do these types of turnaround tasks
effectively. Kasper Schyberg who helped Pippo in the Academy was sent from bar to
bar and unintentionally became the first SWAT during the course of 2011.

The SWAT role became more and more significant with time and Schyberg helped
define the role to what it is to this present day. The SWATs are now important assets to
our entire expansion. They are sent out internationally and help establish and build our
brand around the world.

WINS VÆKSTFACTOR

‘VækstFactor’ is a Danish television award show where Danish companies are selected
with the biggest growth potential. The CEO of each chosen concept performs tests and
presentations to win the award. In 2011, JOE & THE JUICE wins ‘Vækstfactor’ based on
our growth, unusual strategy and Kaspar Basse’s famous comparison speech on how
we see a JOE & THE JUICE store to a Gospel Church.

RIIS RETAIL – NEW LOOK

After the hardship of having to build JOE stores ourselves, we decide that the task
must be outsourced to professionals who could provide the entire package. This decision
was made to allow us again to focus more on the aspect of our business that made us
successful in the first place – the people.

STORES IN SWEDEN AND GERMANY

In 2011, the first store in Stockholm and Hamburg opens.

2012

GM INTRODUCED – FIRST COMPETITION

The BMs were fully introduced to the subject of Gross Margin in 2012. It was a reaction
to an on-going issue that was becoming worse. The GM% was at its all-time lowest of
71%. To grasp the BMs interest, a competition was announced. All the BMs that could
achieve a GM of 80% on average would be invited to go to Ibiza for the summer. This of
course really caught the BMs attention and everyone worked hard to reach the 80% in
GM. Almost too hard because even though the GM% rose overall for the company, it
also created something worse. Some of the BMs were so determined to win the
competition that they purposely cheated with the recipes of our products to save
money. Doing this weakens our brand so severely and can essentially ruin us all together!
Luckily, we quickly discovered the cheating but learned a lot from the competition and
general approach towards better GM% control.

An important conclusion we made, is that the GM% is not what made us the greatest
brand in the world but it is what makes us financially able to do what we can do in terms
of social events and opportunities for our Juicers. Therefore, it continues to be an
important focus for our company to reach our goals.

10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

A legendary party was held in to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of JOE & THE JUICE.

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.

2013

WINNER OF FAB AWARDS

The FAB Awards is an international Awards program focused entirely on work done for
Food and Beverage brands. It recognises the critical contribution that outstanding
creative work makes to building brands and rewards the leading concepts around the
world. JOE & THE JUICE wins ‘Best Coffee Shop in an Airport’.

NEW OWNERSHIP WITH VALEDO

To fulfil the ever-growing ambitions of JOE & THE JUICE, we needed to team up with a
private equity fund which was eventually decided to be Valedo.  Valedo is a Swedish
capital fund who specialise in medium-sized companies and helps them reach their goals.

NEW EXPANSION PLAN 250 STORES BY END OF 2017

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.

2014

REGIONAL MANAGER

After many store openings in Denmark the market had now reached 50 stores. This
made it very challenging to operate and, again like in 2010, there was a feeling of
distance between the top management and the BMs. In response to this, it was time to
build a new management layer in the organization which would be the vital link between
the office and the BMs. As with many new initiatives, it was not a success instantly but
with time the role became more optimal and the position is now used in all of our mature markets.

2015

NEW MENU

The concept of health continuously develops so we constantly need to as well. When
Kaspar Basse created juice that contained 3 different ingredients mixed together it was
exciting and dramatic but 13 years later it had become the standard of many other juice
concepts. So, to revamp our juice menu and especially prepare ourselves for the
important US expansion, a new menu was created adding 10 new juices (Re-build, Green
Shield, JOE’s Roots etc.), ice coffee/latte and upgrades to our sandwiches.

100 STORES MIAMI VICE PARTY

A huge party was held to celebrate the opening of 100 stores for JOE & THE JUICE.

FORMULATING BRAND PURPOSE, DOGMAS, AND OUR ROLLING STONES MAGAZINE GOAL

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.”

DOGMAS

– WE BELIEVE IN STIMULATING PEOPLE TO DO THINGS THEIR WAY

– WE BELIEVE IN INVESTING IN EDUCATION

– WE BELIEVE IN COMPLEXITY WITH REGARDS TO PEOPLE

– WE BELIEVE IN INVESTING IN TRAINING

– WE BELIEVE IN INTIMATE SURROUNDINGS + RELATIONSHIPS

– WE DON’T WANT TO MAKE THINGS EASY

– WE DON’T WANT TO DISCOUNT OURSELVES

– WE ONLY WANT TO OFFER GOOD STUFF

– WE PUT OUR PEOPLE ON THE STAGE, NOT OUR PRODUCTS

– WE DON’T BELIEVE IN SERVICE CONCEPTS

– WE WANT TO NURTURE INDIVIDUAL INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS

– WE NEVER WANT TO FOLLOW TEXTBOOK SOLUTIONS

– WE HAVE TO DO THINGS OUR WAY

– WE ARE MOTIVATED BY THE FEAR OF BEING AVERAGE

NEW MARKETS FRANCE, SINGAPORE, SOUTH KOREA, HONG KONG AND 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.

NEW YORK – MAKE, OR BREAK

Compared to the opening of Regent St, this was a much bigger opening for JOE & THE
JUICE as a brand because unlike in London we could not afford to mess this up. 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.

2016

BRAND BEHAVIOUR BECOMES FORMULATED

After 14 years, we had still not defined what ‘Ambience’ was and how to train it in the
stores. Even though we wanted the ambience to be a natural aspect in all the stores, it
was important to first define and then be able to train it in places that are far away from
the epicentre of JOE & THE JUICE culture. It should not be a service program because
we knew we did not provide service, we had Brand Behaviour instead. Brand Behaviour
is a person’s natural behaviour towards a 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.

VESTERGAARD MOVES FROM C.F.O TO C.O.O

After 13 years in JOE & THE JUICE, Seb becomes the new C.O.O. (Chief Operational
Officer). This is a testimony to JOE’s philosophy of hiring internally. As we have
discovered on multiple occasions, it is much more ideal for us to develop a person from
within than to hire from outside. This also creates more excitement for many others
who work in the company because it signifies that through working hard they also have
the possibility to advance towards a higher position. You can take any person from the
management and their story will be very similar to Sebastian’s. This is why JOE THE
JUICE is strong because we hire internally and develop people into their positions.

THE MONEYBALL SYSTEM

After Seb moves up to become the C.O.O. of JOE, he immediately starts to define a
system that can identify and develop talents to progress through the ranks and
eventually become a Country Manager more systematically. This was a major step
towards developing the company to new heights and to continuously supply us with
new talents to support the ever-growing expansion.

JOE HOUSE US

A program called ‘International Travel JQ’ was initiated to facilitate the now worldwide
expansion and to create opportunities for Juicers to travel and pursue a career in JOE &
THE JUICE. To support this program, houses were set up to have multiple Juicers living
in good conditions, close to the city with affordable rent. These houses are referred
to as a ‘JOE House’ and the idea is to establish one in every market to create the
opportunity for Juicers to experience the world while still earning a salary or even
developing their careers at the same time.

NEW HQ ØSTERGADE

After several years of aggressive expansion, the number of people at the HQ office had
also grown substantially. In 2016, JOE & THE JUICE moves into an office that can
accommodate the new size of management and function as a worthy HQ for the size of the company.

SAN FRANCISCO & AUSTRALIA OPENS

San Francisco and Sydney open with success, Sydney is especially a great achievement
since it is the market furthest away from anything we have opened before. Immediately
after opening the first store, San Francisco surprises us all with very good results.

GENERAL ATLANTIC BECOMES PARTNER

General Atlantic becomes our new partner to support the aggressive expansion strategy
of US. Their long ties to US and connections help reinforce our efforts to penetrate the
US market.

2017

FIRST TRAINING PROGRAMS – JQ PROGRAM

In continuation of the MoneyBall System, the entire training platform starts to effectively
take shape with the first and final “Prospect Juicer to JQ Juicer program”.  For the first
time ever, a cohesive program was defined to universally align how to train a Juicer in
any market. This was the start of a long-term project for the CAMPUS HQ to define and
finalise all training programs structured by the MoneyBall.

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.

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.

2018

INTRODUCING THE DAILY STORE MANAGER INTO THE MONEYBALL SYSTEM.

The Daily Store Manager is appointed responsibility of the daily operational management in a
low turnover store with guidance from the Regional Manager. This is a strong Pipeline
position to advance further unto Bar Manager level in a higher turnover store.

CONTINUED 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.

DYNAUDIO COLLABORATION

Our strong passion for music has created a culture of impassioned music lovers
and JOE & THE JUICE has become widely known for our unique music profile.
In the continuation of establishing our music brand, we in 2018 started collaborating with the
Danish founded company Dynaudio. Dynaudio is the leading producer of high-end
loudspeakers with no compromises to sound quality and technological performance.

2019

KASPAR BASSE BECOMES CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AND SEBASTIAN VESTERGAARD IS OFFICIALLY APPOINTED CEO

2019 started out with a milestone announcement as Kaspar Basse officially stepped
down as CEO and instead continues his legacy as Chairman of the Board. The CEO position
was officially entrusted to Sebastian Vestergaard, who since the very beginning of JOE & THE
JUICE has represented of our powerful internal potential.

2020

CORONA LOCKDOWN

In 2020 the corona pandemic started. Global lockdowns caused a huge crisis and many companies had to close. In Joe we also had to close stores for good due to corona. Juicers were sent home and our culture was challenged more than ever.

 

THE LAUNCH OF THE JOE APP

Even though we were facing challenging times, the launch of our Joe App had huge success. With the new interface, and pre-order function, we were able to convert many of our guests to the Joe App. Now they could pick up their orders contactless without waiting in line. Reaching more than 600k App users within the first year, it was clear to us that the App was going to play a big part of the future in Joe & The Juice.

 

3rd PARTY DELIVERY ROLLOUT

As well as the Joe App, we also introduced 3rd-party deliveries. This was a game changer for many stores especially in UK and France. Now our guests were able to get Joe delivered when working from home. All these initiatives created an increase in turnover, which resulted in more Juicers on shift. Our culture, friendships, and team spirit were on an upwards moving curve again.

2021

NEW INVESTOR 

Even with corona still raging all over the world, we were able to keep up an amazing performance. In fact, we did so well that we were able to attract a lot of attention towards our brand. This resulted in an Egyptian investor whom wanted to invest in Joe. His name is Nassef Sawiris, one of Egypt’s wealthiest men and currently shareholder in Aston Villa, Adidas, and among many other ventures.

 

NOROXE STEPS IN

Sebastian Vestergaard resigns as CEO and Thomas Noroxe steps in as the new CEO of Joe & the Juice. Exciting times are ahead with a new CEO, a new investor and an offensive expansion plan.