After gaining decades of franchise experience with El Pollo Loco, the Corona family was ready for the next stage in their business journey.
Their latest venture, through SJ & Sons MJB Group, is with Movita Juice Bar. Already with two locations, the family signed on to open four more in the Los Angeles market. John Corona, who’s part of the family team along with parents Juan and Sofia, as well as brothers Bryant and Jason, said the long-term goal is to become the largest Movita franchisee in Southern California.
“We let the leadership know that we want to be the premier franchisees for the brand,” Corona said. “Our plan is to have 30 of these open across Southern California.”
The Coronas are the brand’s first franchisees and opened their debut store in May 2022 before buying another later that year. Their relationship with the brand goes back nearly a decade, though, as Corona said family members became fans of the concept not long after its founding in 2015.
“Bryant stumbled upon Movita back then and was an avid customer. One day he walked in and the co-founder, Raul, asked him to come work for Movita, but Bryant explained that our parents are franchisees and we work with them,” Corona said as he referenced Raul Rodriguez, also the CEO of Movita. The conversation instead switched to talk of the Coronas opening a franchise, with Sofia Corona also becoming a fan.
“My mom was a big advocate of the concept and pushed really hard for it,” Corona said. “What stood out to her was it was natural ingredients with nothing frozen. What you see is what you get.”
Rodriguez said those natural ingredients and health-focused recipes for Movita’s smoothies, juices and acai bowls are reflected in the brand’s name, which is Spanish for “more life.”
“It’s our promise to customers,” Rodriguez said. “We carry only clean ingredients with juice that’s raw and made to order. It’s never bottled, and never pasteurized. The same is true with our smoothies. We also don’t use sugar; our juices are sweetened with organic agave nectar. A lot of our work is done in the back of the house as well, to make sure we’re efficient in production.”
Corona said the fresh ingredients also make for more streamlined operations, another selling point for the model.
“At El Pollo Loco, it’s a difficult business model because we are cooking raw product and you have to be really careful with the cooking and serving of it,” Corona said. “So, the difference between that and this is night and day. I get a new employee and the training is so efficient and easy.”
The family’s experience with El Pollo Loco, which dates back to 1981 when the patriarch became a franchisee and continues today as the family operates two restaurants, was an important factor for the Movita team, too.
“They’re a complete team as a family and it’s important for the growth that they’re the operators,” Rodriguez said. “I think that’s very important in franchising. We think the best-performing stores are those that are self-operated. Because they’re there every day, that makes a difference in handling the staff and the culture internally, and it reflects on the customer service and quality.”
In 2023, the family’s first Movita averaged monthly sales of $75,000, while their second location did $60,000. The Coronas are now preparing to open their third store.
The cost to open a Movita Juice Bar ranges from $437,500 to $580,500, and the brand has 17 locations open, all in California.
“We’re mostly in Los Angeles,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a huge market, so we could open 50 in the Los Angeles area and still be relatively unknown. As we grow, we want to eventually get into Florida, Texas and Arizona. Those are the top three states we want to target, especially because of the climate and the consumption of the types of products we offer.”
