Nine years ago, it’s unlikely that Shauna Martin could have seen herself founding a juice company.
Yet at the time, Martin, then 33, was struck with a diagnosis of breast cancer and began to rely on green juice during and after her treatment, using the liquid as a way to detoxify her body following rounds of chemotherapy. Little did she know at the time that in cold-pressed green juice, she would not only find an ally, but also a business.
Now fully recovered, Martin is the CEO of Daily Greens, a company she founded in 2012 with a goal “to have as many people as possible get their daily greens” through the brand’s cold-pressed juices. Based in Austin, Texas, Daily Greens produces seven varieties of green juice in a 4,500-square-foot facility that now features a recently completed attached storefront.
Daily Greens juices were first distributed in the Southwest region of Whole Foods and the company, which also sells direct-to consumer online, has since expanded to six additional regions of the natural grocer, with shelf presence in New York, San Francisco, the Rocky Mountains and the South. Martin credits Texas as a key launching pad for Daily Greens, with the Lone Star State offering new and fertile ground — in more ways than one — for what was to become a now-thriving cold-pressed juice category.
“It’s an advantage in that we were first on the shelves here in Texas,” Martin said in a recent interview with BevNET. “There was no HPP juice when we got our start here in Texas. We’re kind of starting in the middle of the country and moving along toward the coasts. I think the other advantage is that Texas gets overlooked from [a] produce perspective. It’s almost a… year-round growing season, and the greens grow really fabulously all during the winter. So we actually get most of our produce right here in Texas.”
In this video, filmed on-location at Daily Greens headquarters in Austin, BevNET CEO John Craven speaks with Martin about the development of the cold-pressed juice category as mainstream consumers have in greater numbers begun to adopt the products into their diets. Martin also discussed the growth of Daily Greens from a distribution standpoint as the brand crosses into the traditional grocery channel and the company’s approach to marketing.