Enlarge (credit: Juicero)
According to a letter to employees sent today, Juicero CEO Jeff Dunn allegedly called for a “strategic shift” at the company that would involve cutting 25 percent of staff and dropping the price of the press to under $ 200.
Juicero found itself in the Silicon Valley limelight in April, when Bloomberg reporters got ahold of one of the company’s high-end presses and found that they could, by hand, squeeze a considerable amount of juice out of the proprietary juice bags that are designed to work with the appliance. That left many to question what the juicer, which started at $ 700 and was later reduced to $ 400, was really doing. It couldn’t press any fruits or vegetables other than what came in the juice bags (which are delivered to customers’ doors for $ 5-$ 7 a pouch). And if you buy into the idea that cold-pressed juice is somehow healthier for you than juice from a centrifugal blender (a claim for which there is very little evidence), then that purpose seemed to be thwarted as well—the produce in several bags seemed to already be in a pulp form.
After much ridicule, Juicero CEO Jeff Dunn defended his company’s product, saying that the elaborately-engineered machine delivered more consistent pouch presses and prevented users from accidentally pressing expired juice packs by reading a barcode on the pack’s label.
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