The owner of Inverness-based smoothie and juice company Juicy Ness is celebrating two milestones in the space of a month as her business shows no signs of stopping
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ALISON MacKintosh recently celebrated eight years of the business and two years since the launch of her mobile smoothie trailer Wee Juicy.
The journey began when she went through a fitness overhaul, exploring how food and nutrients can affect your body.
She described the growth from there: “Juicy Ness organically grew out of that because people were asking me, I was giving juices to people and giving recipes. I just did it around my childminding business for about four years.”
Mrs MacKintosh then returned to working in sales and marketing while continuing Juicy Ness on the side.
However, when lockdown began in 2020, it was the spur she needed to take the leap and do Juicy Ness full time.
Mrs MacKintosh had already done a few pop-up bars at events which were well received and won the healthier food and drink award at the Highlands and Islands Food and Drink awards in 2016.
She bought Wee Juicy, the smoothie bar on wheels, unseen from Birmingham after her husband found it online.
The horsebox was already a converted prosecco bar and painted in Mrs MacKintosh's business colours, so she said it just felt like it was meant to be.
At a time in June 2020 when many were struggling with the Covid-19 lockdown, Mrs MacKintosh found a bustling market at her local park in Inshes.
She continued: “I was waiting for the right point and when lockdown happened I was furloughed and I just thought well why not, it’s a good time to just give it a go.
“I was one of the very lucky ones. Because it was a mobile catering van there were no restrictions. It was well received because at that point people had been stuck inside for a while and it was something different. It gave me the nudge to leave my job and go full time with it.
“It’s a bit of a blur the whole thing. It was so good through that summer in 2020 to take the juices and smoothies out and for them to be so healthy at a time where people really needed to look after their health.”
From there, the business grew rapidly as Mrs MacKintosh opened a unit at Fairways in Inverness in September 2021.
Despite the success of the last few years, Mrs MacKintosh sees her journey as more of a long slog.
She added: “Opening a smoothie bar in the winter in the Highlands is not ideal. But we got through it and there’s always challenges. There’s been plenty of times over the eight years where I could have made the leap but I was too scared to do it. It took the lockdown to just do it. To me, it feels like it’s been a long slow journey to get here.
“There have been so any ups and downs throughout the last eight years.
“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It is all consuming when you run a business.”
Wee Juicy is now a regular feature on the Highland Food and Drink Trail near the Inverness Cathedral.
Mrs MacKintosh said: “As soon as the guys from the Highland Food and Drink Trail came to me I was all for it. It’s so good to promote it. It’s so lovely for Inverness because it doesn’t really have that.”
Wee Juicy also headed to Belladrum this year, which Mrs MacKintosh described as a big highlight after she did a pop-up makeshift smoothie bar in the vip area of the festival in 2015.
She added: “This year we retuned but this time to the Foodie Forrest within the main arena. It really is a bit of a full circle moment and we’re nervous but equally excited to be part of the festival again.”
In the future, Mrs MacKintosh hopes to be able to offer talks about health, her journey and the benefits of what a healthy diet can do for people. She explained that health is so much more than weight loss, and she would love to share this.
