How to start a juice business in South Africa

How to start a juice business in South Africa

This is a guide on how to start a juice business in South Africa.

We love juice, almost all of us drink juice on a daily basis, this can be a very fulfilling and exciting business to start. It’s one that is currently not done by a lot of entrepreneurs in South Africa. Let’s look at some of the ways that you can start a juice business in South Africa.

Here is what you will need to start a juice business in South Africa.

1. Concept

First things first, you need a concept before anything else. Coming up with a concept also means that you will have to choose a niche. Are you going to focus on fruit juices, energy drinks or juice smoothies?

Your concept should include a rough picture of the flavours that you will have, think of all the flavours that you want to have. Also think about the packaging at this point. This is basically a way to have a picture of the end product in your head before you even begin.

2. Operating premises

You are going to need to have a commercial working space, you can’t start a juice business from home. The health department will not allow you to make juice in your home and sell it commercially.

What you can do though if you just want to test the waters is to buy juice equipment and produce it in your personal capacity at home. You can then give this juice to your friends and family to taste it. This way you will be able to get important feedback on how your juice tastes like before you commit on a larger scale.

3. Licenses and permits

You need a permit to sell food and beverages to people. The department of health will come to your operating premises to check if everything is in order before they decided whether or not to give you the permit. Your premises should be very hygienic, there are other rules and standards that you should comply with.

You will also need to register your business as a legal entity, it’s recommended that you register it as a private company. Registering a private company only costs R175 in South Africa.

4. Equipment

You need to have some equipment before starting out, this equipment is not so expensive that it can deter you from starting this business. You can most probably raise the funds to buy this equipment.

The equipment you will need is a commercial juicer, a good commercial juicer costs around R25 000 but you can get some of the cheaper ones for R5 000.

Other things you need are stainless steel surfaces, fridges, freezers, blenders, handwashing facilities, prepping knives.

5. Branding

The next important thing that you will need to focus on is branding, packaging is very important for branding. Get a logo and proper packaging. A lot of people judge things by their outside appearance, people might not respect your brand if you use plastic bottles. It’s often better to use cardboard or glass for packaging.

6. Marketing

Marketing is often the bottleneck for most businesses, marketing is hard and needs some experience. However, there are popular marketing techniques that have been proven to work. Create a website, you want to look professional, a website doesn’t have to cost much, you can get a well-designed website for only R1 200 from Promta Web Services.

The next thing you can do is run adverts on social media, social media marketing is very powerful, Facebook is used by over 17 million people in South Africa. You can find your whole target market on social media. Marketing will likely determine whether your business fails or succeeds.

7. Selling

Decide on how you are going to sell the juice, are you going to sell it directly to consumers or will you sell through supermarkets and grocery stores?

Getting supermarkets to buy and sell your juice can be hard, you need to be strategic, try to offer them the juice at near cost price. Also spend some time promoting and marketing your juices, use billboards and other marketing tools.

Conclusion

This was a guide on how to start a juice business in South Africa. You might need someone who is experienced in making juices on your team or you can start experimenting by yourself until you find the right combination. Do you have any thoughts or questions? Comment below.

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This Post Has 10 Comments

  1. Hello, I am satisfied with the information provided. I am really starting with the business and I will follow all the steps you have provided.

    Thank you.

    Kind regards
    Khethukuthula Thela

    1. We are glad you found this information useful 🙂 we are pleased when our readers find our content valuable.

  2. helpful information indeed, if only there were link recommendations of juice making suppliers as well.
    That would’ve been very handy.

  3. Hello my juice business is underway so should i go & register it’s while it’s hasn’t started operating

    1. You can register it as a company, it’s always helpful and might help you to secure future deals.

  4. great tips you find out there

  5. How do you go about getting the juice fda approved . Beside the visit to manufacturing site.

  6. Thank you so much for the information I got here,so where can one get a commercial juicer,and do I go to health department or our local municipality to get a license for permity.

    I’ll appreciate your respond on that.

  7. My name Maggie,I will like to start a smoothie drink business I don’t know where to start I like you guys to assist please

  8. Thank you for the very insightful information. I am planning to start a juice business too. Do you have some recommendations or people who are experienced in this field ?

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