about us
a little history
Hiya there! How’s things? Thanks for visting our site, we really appreciate your interest in finding out how our smoothie bars and healthy eating roadshows have been inspiring students, school pupils, professional sports teams and even the odd celeb to make healthier eating choices by making fruit exciting, convenient and above all….....tasty!
As with any business it all started with an idea…as students, we (Simon and Phil) always struggled to get anything healthy to eat while on campus, never really fancying the reheated, processed, or pre-packaged food, all lacking in fresh, energizing ingredients. That was until we went to study abroad for a year in the States where we we’re introduced to the revelation of a smoothie bar on campus!
We loved the fresh made, fast served smoothies so much we became passionate about making the same healthy choices available to our friends back on our home campus. It was obvious to us that when we all eat better, we feel better!
After graduating with the customary student debt we raised £12,000, partly by working the summer in a pea factory. We bought a mobile cart and began trading at outdoor events as well as from an isolated Uni sports centre location during term time. We learned at firsthand what products students liked, what prices they we’re prepared to pay and how to get their attention. The management of the centre saw for the first time ‘non-sports centre members making trips over from the Union building, just to get a Xing smoothie’.
Our reward was permission from the students union to build a flagship smoothie bar in the main union building with the support of staff, sabbaticals and students, proving in the process that our generation of students weren’t fruit dodgers and we’re happy to ditch the pot noodle and baked bean eating stereotype of the past.
Into Schools
At the outdoor events we discovered that kids would queue up to buy a burger or soft drink from a neighbouring stand but decide to join our queue after watching the brightly coloured smoothies being whizzed up in our blenders. On many occasions we’d hear “I don’t know what to order because I don’t like fruit”....whilst using their own money to buy a smoothie!
We couldn’t ignore what we’d witnessed so we started visiting schools with our smoothie making ‘roadshow’. With teachers reporting visible improvements to the eating habits of pupils, word spread and we we’re asked to visit more and more schools, developing the marketing element of the session as a means to empower and inspire pupils through challenging and thought provoking activities.