Georgian-Born Entrepreneur’s UK Smoothie Company Hits Big Time

LONDON – Just over three years ago and inspired by his mom’s recipes for fresh smoothies, Georgian-born Guka Tavberidze set out to conquer the UK’s health food industry.

Dubbing his new start-up “Savse” – Georgian for “crammed full”, chosen to reflect the nutritional qualities of his product – Tavberidze is well on his way to becoming one of Britain’s newest entrepreneurial success stories.

‘I wanted my customers to experience something ultra-healthy and the same way that I have been drinking all my life,” Tavberidze told the BBC.

Tavberidze, 28, immigrated to the UK with his family in 1994. He later dropped out of Roehampton University, where he was working on a degree in English literature.

He spent the next several years in and out of various uninspiring jobs but started researching the smoothie market in June 2011 when he thought back on the cocktails his mother made for him as a child.

“I had no professional experience and no degree. I was just a normal guy with the dream of wanting to do something on my own,” he said.

Tavberidze said what makes his smoothies different from his competitors, is their use of heat pasteurization to kill the natural bacteria in the ingredients. After weeks of research, he discovered a process called high-pressure processing that which preserves the raw ingredients and keeps smoothies fresh and natural.

“What I found was a lot these fruit drinks are not as healthy as the labels would suggest – sometimes it is not actual fruit or vegetables, but just powder,” Tavberidze told the Guardian.

The recipes originate from his mother Nino, who began preparing the smoothies in Georgia more than 30 years ago.

When she was pregnant, the doctors told her she had an iron deficiency and was told to drink spinach and apple juice.

To neutralize the bitter taste of spinach, she began mixing the juice with other fruits. The concoction quickly became a family favorite.

“I came home to see my mother in September 2011 and told her we needed to start marketing her smoothies and get into the business,” said Tavberidze.

His uncle invested the initial £250,000-worth of capital and armed with his mother’s recipes he set out to build his start-up in January 2013.

In just three years, Savse is now a USD 13 million-dollar company, with sales growing by 600 per cent in the last 12 months and has caught the eye of the British media.

By Tamar Svanidze

Edited by Nicholas Waller

Photo: Savse website