Meet The ‘Doctor’ Behind Malta’s 10-Year-Old Juice Empire
It’s not surprising how popular Dr. Juice is in Malta. It’s juicing-focused push towards healthier living and promoting a positive and environmentally friendly lifestyle – all while being seriously tasty – resonated with a young, cosmopolitan generation of Maltese people.
The company is about to hit its 10 year anniversary, celebrating a decade of juicing and changing ideas about nutrition. Lovin Malta spoke to John Winfield, the man behind the brand, about all things Dr. Juice in Malta, and how his company has become Malta’s go-to juicing brand.
While travelling around Asia, America, and Australia over a decade ago, John began noticing more and more people getting into juicing
“I was also into healthy foods and blending ever since I was young, but it was while travelling that I realised it could be a business. I was in a hospital in Australia after I had broken my foot, and there was this fruit and vegetable van right outside the hospital called the Old Fire Station,” he says.
“There was a health shop next door to the hospital – and obviously in Australia you can take your pick of whatever fruit you want – and I used to go to the health shop, get some bits and pieces, then go to the van and use their blender,” he continued.
This habit of his soon spread to other patients in the hospital, and he began juicing for others
“I used to make some juice for the people in the hospital every morning, it was sort of my thing,” John laughs.
“And there were these two Spanish brothers who used to get hammered, and I would buy loads of things to rehydrate them all the time, and I ended up making specific recipes for them ‘to fix them’ – that was the thing – and they started calling me ‘Dr. Juice’.”
With an idea and an organic, catchy name, he opened up Malta’s first Dr. Juice outlet, on the St Julian’s seafront
At first, things were rather haphazard.
“I’d create all my recipes the night before, and write them on little pieces of paper to be stuck with blue tack to the wall,” John says, “but it all came together – and we started getting queues almost straight away.”
The company was also a tad smaller than it is today.
“It was just me, my girlfriend Nadege and a hammock at the back for eight months,” he continued. “At the time we had transparent cups and colourful branding and people were just like: ‘what is this place?’ “
His family – aunts and uncles included – even staged an intervention in the hopes of dissuading their nephew’s new venture
“They told me ‘it’s not gonna work, you are too hopeful’,” says John. “But when we started and we got the queue it was sort of like, ‘yes we’ve done it’, I’ve believed in it and it’s happened, and we’ve just had great feedback from the beginning.”
10 years on, Dr. Juice has consistently kept things fresh
“We’ve evolved the menu so much over the years. We change the menu every year, and we’ve just kept changing – but there was always one common thing that I’m really proud of,” says John. “Anytime anybody asks us about Dr. Juice or asks me what I do, they’ve always got a positive feeling towards . brand overall. It’s not about the bright colours or the quirky things we did over the years, like the cars which are old hat now, or the bicycles that you’d pedal and blend your own juices; we’ve always have positive feedback regarding what we do.”
Tastes and trends change over time, but one juice has remained a constant favourite
“One of the favourites throughout the years is the Mango Mania – it’s thick, it’s sweet, it’s made with yoghurt, it’s cold, and if you’re hungover or thirsty, it’s great,” he says, “and the watermelon cooler is really popular as well – everyone loves watermelon. Nowadays, people’s favourites tend to lean towards the green juices and liquid meals, and protein shakes are always popular.”
Dr. Juice is about to get even greener with a new environmental sustainability policy rollout
“The biggest thing we need to work on is the new sustainability policy,” John says. “We’ve spent two months holding meetings every week with our consultant Gayle, and we want to do everything we can to get this policy out which will completely change the way we trade, and will involve everyone from staff to managers to stakeholders.”
And get ready for a whole new chapter in the Dr. Juice story, with a fully food-focused restaurant on the cards
“Moving forward, we’ll be going for a full blown restaurant,” he says. “We’ve always served food since the first shop – we did things like bagels at the time, and wraps, which are great on the go – but no one really knew about it until the fourth or fifth year: we used to be famous for the juice, and just the juice.”
But with the opening of a central kitchen which supplies all the stores, and an upgraded menu, Dr. Juice is about to get very serious about its food
After 10 years of making Maltese people love fresh, healthy juices, Dr. Juice is about to make people love fresh, healthy food.
“After the Gżira restaurant, our next restaurant will open in the evening as well to attract families and bring in the mentality that you can go out for a dinner and eat good food and still feel excited to go out,” he says. “You can still indulge a bit, but indulge in a way that’s tasty, exciting, and good for you!”
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