Jamba Refranchising Efforts Moving Along

Jamba, Inc., the parent company of Jamba Juice, is continuing to make good on its rebranding initiative launched late last year. Just last month the company announced the completion of a refranchising agreement for 73 stores in the San Jose/East Bay and Sacramento markets. A company release said the brand expects to sell the remaining 27 company locations in the San Diego market by the end of the year.

Last December, Jamba announced the refranchising initiative with a stated goal of refranchising "up to 114" stores during 2015. The company has exceeded its initial plans with closed deals so far this year already representing 150 stores. The company expects that deals for 74 additional stores will be refranchised for three California markets by the end of 2015 and the Chicago/Midwest market by the first quarter of 2016. According to the release, the brand expects to be a "90 percent-plus franchise organization" by the end of 2015.

"We are pleased with the progress we continue to make in our refranchising efforts," said James D. White chairman, president and CEO of Jamba. "As we move ahead on the company's commitment to an asset-light model, these deals position us well to reach our goal of generating $60 - $70 million of cumulative cash proceeds from refranchising in 2015." There are currently more than 800 Jamba stores system-wide in the United States and more than 600 of those are franchise-operated stores.