Inta Juice scores big: Fort Collins company mixing up smoothies nationwide.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: Attitude at Altitude

CEO Richard Pickett didn't put it this way, but it was as if the founder of Inta Juice had launched a long bomb on a football field in Minnesota and NFL wide receiver Randy Moss pulled the ball in with those soft hands and long fingers as he crossed the goal line at Invesco Field in Denver.

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Starting his family business almost 10 years ago--Inta Juice now has 30 outlets in five states--wasn't so fanciful, but having the football star make a large investment in the firm and use his celebrity status to help market it, is certainly the stuff of dreams.

"We're thrilled to have a high-profile athlete like Randy Moss join our team," Pickett said in February when Moss came with him to the new Stapleton outlet of Inta Juice to announce the investment and the financial position Moss was taking in the franchise operation. The amount of the investment wasn't disclosed, but Moss has bought four franchises he plans to open this year, one in his home state of West Virginia, two in North Carolina and one in Baton Rouge, La.

Franchise fees are $20,000 per store and a commitment of 6 percent of gross sales to the franchising company Pickett Juice Junction, based in Fort Collins. Pickett said the "typical" costs of building and opening an Inta Juice store ranges from $175,000 to $225,000, costs borne by the franchisee.

Moss learned about the company from former teammate Matt Birk, who used to bring Inta Juice smoothies to the team locker room. The Minnesota Vikings center was one of Pickett's first licensees.

Moss not only liked their taste, but he liked the drink as a healthy alternative to other fast-food concoctions that lead to obesity in children. He said he thought he could bring the concept back home and to southern states where the problem of childhood obesity is being recognized by parents and at elementary schools where a child's problem often begins.

Pickett said he and his son, Heath, now 33 and chief operating officer of Pickett Juice, are now the only family...