Georgian healthy food and juice bar SKA Juice Bar has gone beyond the borders of the country. The company opened the first branch in the Czech Republic - Giorgi Talakhadze, the founder of "Ska Juice Bar" told BM.GE.
According to him, the company decided to enter the Prague market considering various factors.
"Our target market is Central and Eastern EU. More specifically, those markets have fewer healthy food retailers. In August 2023, we made a decision to enter Prague. It was a rather difficult and long-term process. It took us exactly over a year to open the first branch. The main reason for this was the well-known European bureaucracy," explains the founder of "Ska Juice Bar".
According to him, the first branch has already been opened in the city center, and the second branch will also be opened on one of the active tourist streets. Giorgi Talakhadze also notes that the Czech "Ska Juice Bar" will keep exactly the concept that the bar has in Georgia.
"The concept of "Ska" will be the same as in Georgia. It will be a mix of a bar, where various freshly made natural products are prepared, based on the principle of grab & go, where the customer will be able to buy and eat various ready-made products in a few seconds. "Ska" in Prague will be aimed at the same segment. We call this segment "busy bees". People who don't have a lot of time, live an active lifestyle, don't have time to cook, and with all this, they prefer food made with natural and healthy ingredients. This segment is, of course, quite large in Prague, so we hope to have quite active work from the beginning.
We are also starting cooperation with Wolt from next week, which will further help us to increase sales", - notes the founder.
Speaking about the future plans, the founder of SKA notes that in the next 5 years, it is planned to absorb more countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
"We plan to enter 5 EU cities in the next 5 years. Of course, we do all this together with local leadership teams, who ultimately become our partners and continue to manage and develop the company, exactly in the same format that we have done in Georgia in the last 5 years.
Today, SKA Georgia is fully managed by the team who have been involved in the process with us since the first day. Today they are already co-founders of SKA and continue to grow with us", Giorgi Talakhadze notes.
Ska Juice Bar appeared on the Georgian market in 2019. The company has 15 branches in Tbilisi and Batumi.
