Ginger Juice Co. founder Erin Powell is selling the business she founded in 2014. (Courtesy of Ginger Juice)
A new owner is taking the reins at a local juice bar nearly a decade after it first opened.
Ginger Juice Co. founder Erin Powell is selling the business and its location at Village Shopping Center in Henrico to Chelsea Binder, the restaurant’s manager. The deal was expected to close Monday (today) or Tuesday. Terms weren’t disclosed.
Powell is offloading Ginger Juice shortly after moving to Nashville, Tennessee, with her 11-year-old son Sayer, who inspired the concept with his tolerance of juiced vegetables and the business’s name – due to his red hair. Powell moved out of state so her son can attend a charter school called Tennessee Nature Academy. She continues her gig as vice president of sales at Richmond-based Blue Ocean Brain, a professional development firm, as a remote worker.
“Finding this charter school that’s perfect for his needs is what we need right now. Ultimately I feel blessed Chelsea has been there and it’s not a big failure, it’s me passing (the business) along. It very much feels like she’s the right person and very capable and that makes me feel really good,” Powell said in an interview last week. “I feel indebted to the Richmond community. So many people supported me.”
Erin Powell
Powell opened the original brick-and-mortar Ginger Juice at the Village Shopping Center in October 2015, after launching the business the previous year with online sales and participation at local farmer’s markets.
The original location relocated in 2017 to its current space at 7021 Three Chopt Road within the Publix-anchored center. Ginger Juice also for a time had a location at the GreenGate development in Short Pump and in Chesterfield County. Powell shuttered both of those outposts in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and they never reopened.
“It’s bittersweet for sure (to sell the business). I had big plans for Ginger Juice and got the rights to franchise it. That was the plan, to grow through franchising, but the universe had other plans,” Powell said.
Powell joined Blue Ocean Brain in spring 2022 after spending two years as executive director of Lighthouse Labs, a startup accelerator program based in Richmond.
In recent years Karlie Vogt has handled day-to-day operations at Ginger Juice and Powell credited her, as well as Binder, with keeping the business running ahead of conversations that led to the plans for Binder to buy the business.
“It just kind of came together. Chelsea has a restaurant background and she’s always been interested in owning her own restaurant. I have a lot of respect and faith in both of them,” Powell said. She said Vogt plans to stay on for a transition period before eventually parting ways with Ginger Juice.
Binder has been with the company as general manager of the Village location since October 2021. Binder said outside of a few upgrades to the restaurant, she doesn’t have near-term plans for major changes.
Chelsea Binder
“Some of the things we really want to do in the next few months is give it some love in terms of new equipment and furniture,” Binder said. “There’s no immediate plans to change the name or anything like that. It’s been really awesome the last couple years to meet the regulars here.”
Prior to moving to the Richmond area and joining Ginger Juice, Binder was in Raleigh and worked as a multi-unit manager for Kale Me Crazy, an Atlanta-based chain of juice bars with a presence in several states.
Binder felt there’s been a pandemic-era trend toward greater health consciousness that makes her optimistic about the future of companies like Ginger Juice, which in addition to cold-pressed juices sells salads, smoothies and bowls.
“Even when I was working in Raleigh, a lot of people had started to prioritize their health a little more and wanted to make changes and I think that’s something that’s been good for this kind of business,” she said. “I think a lot of people have made different choices with their eating habits and they’re looking for places like this.”
And while not in the immediate plans, Binder isn’t opposed to making Ginger Juice a multi-location brand once again.
“I wouldn’t say we’re actively thinking about it right now, but we’d love to open at least one new location,” she said.
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