Joe & The Juice plans to operate 200-300 outlets in the Middle East within ten years | Photo credit: Joe & The Juice

Joe & The Juice has confirmed plans to open three outlets in the UAE in August this year, before undertaking further store openings in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in September.
 

The Danish coffee and juice chain says it intends to operate 10 stores across the Middle East by the end of 2022 as part of wider plans to operate 200-300 outlets in the region within ten years. 

Speaking at the second Qatar Economic Conference, Joe & The Juice CEO Thomas Nørøxe said that the company’s Middle East stores will be franchised, with Lavoya Restaurants Group the confirmed franchisee for the UAE expansion. 

Dubai-based Lavoya currently operates branches of the Dave's Hot Chicken and Barbar fast casual brands in the GCC region, with the franchise operator first announcing the Joe & The Juice partnership in April 2022. 

Speaking to local press, Lavoya’s CEO Walid Hajj said that Joe & the Juice ‘offers a very unique offering that I believe is currently not something that you can find in the UAE’. Ten Joe & The Juice stores are expected to open in the UAE by the end of 2023, Hajj added. 

Nørøxe, who was appointed Joe & The Juice CEO in June 2021 and tasked with leading the chain's international expansion, also hinted that the expected success of Joe & The Juice in the region would prepare the brand for expansion into further Asian markets ‘in the coming years’. 

Joe & The Juice currently operates around 300 stores in Europe, the US and Asia Pacific, including nine in South Korea, two in Singapore and two in Australia. 

In April 2022, Joe & The Juice indicated it could launch an IPO within five years.