Xing Health Bar

They are co-founders of Xing, the outlet in York’s Shambles which not only specialises in amazing smoothies (people sigh over their “passion ration” – peach, mango and passion fruit concoction) but also in educating schoolchildren on healthy fast food.

Now they are pitching for both the Small Business Of The Year and Best Employer and Education Link titles.

It all began when Simon and Phil were Hull University students who, while studying for a year in the US, learned the delights of smoothie bars and they imported them back to Hull, where they opened a successful juice bar of their own.

At outdoor events, children would ask for one of their fruit or vegetable drinks and reported that normally they shunned that kind of food. So the two men began visiting primary schools spreading the word about healthy fast food.

When asked to visit a Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull they created the “smoothie enterprise workshop” and eventually launched a pupil-run smoothie bar there. It was applauded by educationalists and now six more are launching in September, hopefully two in York. The aim: to have bars running in 40 schools by the end of the next academic year.

Meanwhile the duo took over a juice bar in Shambles in summer 2009 and in their first year boosted 30 per cent more sales than the previous venture’s best. Sales have continued to grow ever since, with like-for-like increases of ten per cent for every month since opening.

They defied the seasonal threat to their smoothie sales by launching a hot soup menu, and December sales nearly doubled.

Now the friendly way in which they and their ten staff run Xing has been featured in the travelintelligence blog as one of five things you must experience in York. Under the duo’s mentorship one of their employees, James Borrow, went from being unemployed and unskilled to being awarded Employee Of The Year at the Visit York Awards.

And they are continually posting new recipes for good eating by way of drinking on their website, Xinghealth.co.uk