It’s entry level,” says Karena Hutton reassuringly, as she pours Irish Country Living a glass of Clean Green juice: a cold-pressed concoction containing the equivalent of one apple, half a cucumber, a quarter of a lemon, a thumb-sized piece of ginger, two handfuls of spinach and a handful of wheatgrass – with not an additive or preservative in sight.

We take a sip – and smile – confessing that we thought it might be, well...

“A bit ‘mean?’” laughs her sister Jennie, who reveals that even the most reluctant juicers have been converted.

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“My kids love this.”

And indeed, less than a year after moving out of a spare box room, the sisters’ start-up, Juicy Lucy, is now stocked by select SuperValu stores in Galway as well as independents including McCambridge’s and Morton’s and restaurants such as 56 Central and Dela.

(One shop manager who Irish Country Living meets by chance a few days later confides he can hardly keep it on the shelves, such is the demand.)

While there is nine years between them, the Galway girls have always been close.

Jennie worked as a nanny in Chicago after leaving school, but went on to train in photography, film and TV and worked in festival administration before the arrival of her children, Leon (six) and Ava (four). Karena, meanwhile, worked in the hospitality sector at home and abroad, before also returning to college to study photography.

It was almost a decade ago that they both discovered the health benefits of juicing raw fruit and vegetables, trading tips and recipes. They also converted their mother after whizzing up juices to help her recover after a series of surgeries, but when her friends began putting in orders themselves, the girls realised there was a business opportunity.

After getting approval from the HSE, they started to produce small batches in Jennie’s kitchen with their trusty €300 Samson cold-press juicer, before moving into the box room. As word of mouth spread, so did demand, and after successfully applying for the SuperValu Food Academy programme, the sisters decided to rent an affordable commercial kitchen that had recently been vacated at the Brothers of Charity centre in Ballybane.

“And that just really set us free,” says Karena. “Having the physical work space to go to and a big walk-in fridge really made a massive difference.”

The sisters agree that the Food Academy programme “whipped the business side of things into shape”. For example, one major challenge they faced was finding a way to give the product a shelf life longer than three days without having to heat the juice, which would impact on its flavour and nutritional value.

With the help of their mentor, Declan Droney, the sisters were steered towards HPP Tolling: a Dublin-based company that provides a cold, organically certified preservation process by submitting the juice to ocean-like depths, giving Juicy Lucy products a 28-day shelf life.

Jennie and Karena also credit the support of their Local Enterprise Board, who assisted them with funding for an e-commerce website for online sales, as well as a branding grant that they invested with local PR expert Lisa Regan, who helped to secure the start-up a substantial amount of press coverage.

However, they recently took a leap of faith and got their first bank loan with AIB to invest in a refrigerated van for deliveries, as well as a custom-built cold-press juicer from Bio Press Juicers in the UK, which will allow them to up production.

“It takes us eight to nine hours to do 100 litres at the moment – with the new juicer we’re going to be able to do it in about two hours,” says Jennie, explaining they will use the extra time to target new stockists.

While the sisters source most of their ingredients from Total Produce, they grow their own wheatgrass for their juices and hope to start their own polytunnel next spring. Their current range also includes a sweet beet juice (beetroot, apple, orange, lemon and ginger) and a bright root juice (sweet potato, carrot, apple, orange, lemon and ginger), and in-store tastings are key to driving sales, with an RRP of €4.50 each.

And with more products in the pipeline, Jennie and Karena believe that working as a sister act will be the key to their success.

“I don’t think I would have been able to do it by myself,” says Jennie. “We are so blessed to have this synergy.”

And the future is looking juicy.

For further information or to buy a juice box online, visit juicylucy.ie/