Who Owns Jamba?

Kirk Perron opened the first store in San Luis Obispo, California, in 1990 under the name Juice Club, selling blended fruit smoothies near the Cal Poly campus. The concept rode the early 1990s health wave, and the chain was renamed Jamba Juice in 1995, taking a name from a Swahili-derived word meaning "to celebrate."

The company went public in 2006 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company and traded on Nasdaq under the ticker JMBA. Growth peaked above 800 locations, but the brand struggled with mall dependence and competition from convenience and fast-food smoothies.

In August 2018, Focus Brands agreed to acquire Jamba for about $200 million, completing the deal on September 14, 2018, and taking the company private. The buyer dropped "Juice" from the name in 2019 as the menu expanded beyond juices and smoothies into bowls, shots, and snacks.

Under GoTo Foods, Jamba has pushed a multi-channel strategy: traditional stores, drive-throughs, airport and campus formats, and a fast-growing retail licensing line selling smoothie kits, frozen pops, and bottled beverages in grocery aisles across the US and Canada. As of March 30, 2025, the system counted more than 770 locations in 34 states, plus units in South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Guatemala, and Saudi Arabia.