Love will Streamline the Juice Franchise’s Financial Operations and More
Clean Juice, a leading USDA-certified organic juice bar franchise, announced Ashley Love as its first-ever chief financial officer (CFO). In the new role, Love will streamline the brand’s financial operations and oversee its finance, human resources, and legal departments. She brings an understanding of implementing processes and scalable systems to the role.
“I am excited and honored to join such an impactful company that’s dedicated to being the gold standard in fast-casual/quick-serve restaurant franchise operations while offering an exciting, premium, nutrient-rich product that raises the bar in healthy living,” Love said in a statement.
Love followed Clean Juice as a customer and was attracted to the fact that it’s headquartered in her hometown of Charlotte, N.C., and co-founded by a woman. Love is also passionate about the impact that the juice bar franchise can have on the quick service restaurant industry.
“Clean Juice proves that you can have a QSR- franchised business that promotes healthy living, provides whole food, organic options, and even gluten-free options. I keep joking that my initial onboarding involves ‘eating my way’ through the menu. I continue to be impressed by how good I feel each day after doing so and how varied the menu is!”
She adds that Clean Juice proves “it’s possible to do healthy, good-for-you food that people actually want to eat, at a large scale. To me, that’s probably the biggest impact we’ll continue to have for the foreseeable future.”
Landon and Kat Eckles, Clean Juice’s co-founders, are thrilled to have Love on board as the brand’s first CFO. “Not only does she bring a unique skill set of accounting and financial operations from her previous experiences, but her forward-thinking vision, street smarts, and good character also make her the perfect fit at the perfect time to join our C-suite team.”
Love’s Franchising Background
Love got her start in franchising with Driven Brands, a Charlotte-based corporate franchisor of automotive franchises. “I first worked in finance for the Meineke brand and then transitioned to Take 5 Oil Change, which was entirely company-operated stores at the time. I was then part of the team that built the franchise program for Take 5. It was a really awesome experience to see all aspects of the franchise system.”
Her favorite part of the franchising industry is “seeing everyday people seizing the opportunity to start their own business, and loving it. The beauty of franchising is that our franchise partners don’t have to figure out every little detail of their business [because] we’ve done a lot of that for them. We’ve built a business model that’s proven to work, and we can teach them to run their own business accordingly.”
For franchisors looking to improve their financial strategy, Love emphasizes that it’s all about supporting growth. “After all, that’s why you franchise a business model – to open more units! When you’ve franchised your business, you’re allowing it to grow quicker because you have multiple franchise partners expanding at the same time on your behalf. I think it’s important to constantly evaluate your systems and back-office business processes.”