This article was written in collaboration with OCBC Business Banking. All views expressed in this article are the independent opinion of DollarsAndSense.sg based on our research, are purely for informational purposes, and should not be relied upon as financial advice. DollarsAndSense.sg is not liable for any financial losses that may arise from any transactions, and readers are encouraged to do their own due diligence. You can view our full editorial policy here.
It all started when Bruce Zhang uprooted his family to work in Singapore’s booming semiconductor industry. Armed with an Aeronautics and Astronautics degree from Beijing University, Bruce spent 11 years making the Internet of Things (IoT) come true.
By then, Bruce needed a new challenge. In 2016, he decided to combine his passions for automation and robotics with healthy eating (or drinking in this case). He founded IJOOZ as a food robotics business with IoT at its heart.
His mission is a simple, but global one, to make freshly squeezed orange juice available to anyone, anywhere, at anytime.
Driven by this, Bruce has built an orange juice empire spanning 3,000 orange juice vending machines in over 34 countries within 8 years.
Today, IJOOZ serves an average of over 100,000 cups of orange juice each day. But, according to Bruce, the business is still in its early innings of growth. In 2023, IJOOZ doubled its headcount to nearly 200 employees. The brand also expanded into a new Smart Pantry business.
I had the fortune of grabbing a freshly squeezed cup of orange juice with the man himself, Bruce, to learn more about his orange juice vending machine business and his vision to grow the business globally.
Dinesh: You didn’t have any prior experience in F&B or logistics, what inspired you to start an orange juice vending machine business?
Bruce: I wanted to make use of my knowledge in automation processes and internet connectivity in more traditional and consumer-facing industries.
Perhaps because of my interest as well, I noticed that many people wished to drink healthier and fresh fruit juices. However, it was hard to get it freshly squeezed and at an affordable price point.
After working with IoT for more than a decade, I was convinced that I could build a food robotics business that would make freshly squeezed orange juice both easier to access and available more affordably.
Today, you can drink a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice from an IJOOZ vending machine at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), the Singapore Zoo, Zouk and even workplace locations in the CBD and the heartlands. Each cup costs $2 to $3, depending on the location.
Dinesh: Your vending machines serve as your storefront.
Besides storing fresh oranges and its leftover peel, incorporating robotics to squeeze the oranges and dispensing the juice, you also have to adhere to stringent food quality control requirements. Of course, you also have to keep up with new digital payment modes.
This sounds like a challenging and costly business to build from scratch. How much did you invest into the business?
Bruce: The original investment was close to $1 million.
R&D and set-up costs for newer versions can be time-consuming and costly. We first had to tackle the problem of selling freshly squeezed orange juice. Interestingly, taking humans out of the equation produces a cleaner cup of orange juice.
We re-modelled existing orange juice squeezers into our vending machines. Figuring out how to store and keep the oranges fresh for longer was more challenging. We also had to keep out pests.
This meant reiterating newer vending machine models. Today, our 5th-generation vending machines are in operation, offering orange juice dispensed with ice, which is especially beneficial in humid weather and helps consumers stay cool.
We also have recurring costs like rent and manpower. While our technicians are always available to repair the vending machines, it is only possible to keep track of the required repairs by incorporating IoT technology. All our machine parts are IoT-enabled, and abnormalities are instantly reported to our technicians.
IoT has enabled us to expand faster and gives us confidence to produce more machines. Our franchisees are also more confident when they can access the IoT platform.
Dinesh: Once you get it right, it also sounds like a highly scalable business. You have expanded to 34 countries in less than 8 years. Congratulations!
Can you share some of the biggest obstacles you faced when trying to grow your global footprint?
Bruce: As a retail consumer-facing business, we have to set up our machine one by one. This requires high and upfront infrastructure costs. It also requires recurring rents and maintenance cost. The only way to grow sales is by increasing the number of vending machines we operate.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we endured a major setback to the business. Sales dropped and our global markets shrank. We have been working hard to undo this damage – and re-enter an expansion phase. We shared our plans with our relationship team at OCBC and the team solutioned to tap on the Temporary Bridging Loan to execute the plan. This allowed us to pivot our business model from one reliant on human traffic in public places, to offering home delivery of bottled fresh orange juices.
Recognising the potential for growth in Japan’s thriving vending machine culture after the pandemic, we decided to expand our presence in the country. Operating through a newly incorporated entity in Japan, we had no prior operating track record to kickstart our operations. OCBC’s Serial Entrepreneur Team supported this plan through the OCBC Business Venture Loan. With a positive momentum in the Japanese market, our goal is to further expand within the country in the upcoming years.
Read Also: Scale Up: Proven Tips For Growing Your Business Internationally
Dinesh: You introduced your Smart Pantry business – installing smart fridges that function as 24/7 pantries in workplaces, and even within some offices.
This sounds like an entirely different business to the IJOOZ vending machine business. How did you come up with this idea?
Bruce: In Singapore, people want lifestyle convenience, and the Smart Shops concept is our answer.
Our Smart Shop business may not look like our orange juice vending machine business, but the fundamentals and mechanics behind it are actually quite similar. We took 2 to 3 years of R&D before rolling out our first Smart Pantry machines.
As a software-focused business, it also relies on IoT. Its operations are akin to a cashier-less 7-eleven outlets. It can operate 24/7, and payments are contactless. The purchase process is simple, customers scan with their digital wallet to access the Smart Pantry and they can take the items they want. Once the door closes, purchases will be deducted from their wallets.
Today, you can spot our machines at offices, schools, condominiums and MRT stations.
Dinesh: IJOOZ has committed to a Green Mission – to reduce, reuse, and recycle. How does this impact your operational decisions?
Bruce: Firstly, the company’s vision is to make fresh products and drinks more accessible. We use premium ingredients, sourced from the U.S. and Australia. We make use of ugly fruits that may go to waste, and we work with suppliers that are aligned to our green mission.
Being green-centric is also important as we handle a significant amount of food and material waste, including our orange peels, and packaging such as our cups and straws.
From Day 1, we never saw our orange peels as trash. Over the years, we’ve come up with some innovative ways to reuse them. We recycle them into natural food additives, animal feed (certain animals in the Singapore Zoo have also been eating our orange peels) and fertilisers.
Today, we even collaborate with a breadmaking company to bake orange-flavoured breads using our orange peels!
Our packaging is eco-friendly as we were concerned about the potential waste if we scaled up. We decided on using paper cups instead of plastic cups even though it costs more.
For our straws, we are constantly making an effort to change. For example, our machines at the Singapore Zoo does not dispense straws, and we are shifting to paper straws that are made from sugar cane and barley.
With Great Scale Comes Great Responsibilities
While Bruce caught the entrepreneurship bug, he chose not to start a business in the highly-competitive and low-margin semiconductor industry that he was very familiar with. Instead, he used his skills and experience from the sector to innovate in a part of the F&B sector that was lagging behind.
As a believer of clean eating, Bruce noted the lack of affordable fresh orange juice options for Singapore consumers back in 2016. Today, his pioneering vending machine business has changed the landscape.
He designed IJOOZ’s vending machine to not only squeeze oranges, but also keep them fresh, repel pests, store orange peels and dispense the juice. The vending machines also offer contactless payment options.
The key to IJOOZ’s success was the introduction of IoT. As his main storefront, breakdowns in his vending machines would cripple his revenue stream. With many more mechanical parts, the IJOOZ vending machine could send abnormality reports to technicians rather than wait for routine maintenance before learning about disruptions.
Within 8 short years, Bruce scaled up to over 34 countries, including Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Dubai, America and even Europe. Today, IJOOZ’s network of over 3,000 vending machines serve more than 100,000 cups of freshly squeezed orange juice everyday.
Bruce also knew that he had to commit to a Green Mission from the onset. Right at the start, IJOOZ used paper packaging rather than plastic packaging and may soon move away from straws altogether as well as swop to more sustainable packaging materials.
For the orange peels from 40 cartons worth of fruit that it uses daily, IJOOZ has embraced creativity and innovation by repurposing them into natural food additives, animal feed, and even fertilizers. Furthermore, IJOOZ is currently collaborating with a bread maker to craft delectable orange peel-infused bread, adding a zestful twist to the culinary world.
Images credit: IJOOZ
