By Tanna M. Friday
Editor
TRUSSVILLE — Just a year ago, a Louisiana native, Steve LeJeune, moved his family to Trussville and joined a new business venture that combines health and nutrition.
Planet Nutrition, based in Layfayette, Lousiana, is devoted exclusively to helping its customers improve the quality of their lives selling smoothies and nutritional supplements.
LeJeune opened Planet Nutrition’s doors in Trussville this past April after working in the oil industry for over 22 years.
“A friend of mine started the franchise down in Louisiana in 2001,” said LeJeune. “I had been talking about it for years with him and decided that I needed to be home with my family. I already knew the product and everything that needed to be done, so opening this store was a no brainier.”
LeJeune said that he first visited Birmingham after a high school friend moved to the area in 1989.
“I would try my best to come up here at least three to four times a year,” he said. “Of course it is a beautiful area and we love it.”
He shared that he and the owner scouted out several areas to open the franchise, including the Hoover area, Albaster, Chelsea, and Trussville.
“Trussville is a great town with a great feel and the surrounding population and growth rate is perfect,” he said. “This location is the first in the state.”
Located at 7274 Gadsden Highway in the Deerfoot Crossings Shopping Center (to the right of Publix), Planet Nutrition is perfect for people who want to live a healthy lifestyle. The store offers supplements for overall health and fitness, smoothies with options of whey or plant based proteins, healthy snacks, and meals including the Fit Five Grab n’ Go meals.
LeJeune, shared that what sets Planet Nutrition apart from other nutrition stores is their special designed product line which has been tested to the highest quality.
“We are kind of like a mixture between a health food store and a smoothie shop,” said LeJeune. “We have a better product than our competitors, especially the smoothies. Since we carry our own product, we can also match prices.”
According to LeJeune, the average price of most proteins are between $1.20-$1.35 a scoop, whereas Planet Nutrition’s prices are between $1.18 and $.85 a scoop.
“My mission for this area is to accommodate individual’s needs and help them reach their fitness goals,” said LeJeune. “We will do this by getting different products in our store while promoting specials online and in our store.”
Since the store’s opening in Trussville, Planet Nutrition has been getting a great response from everyone,” said LeJeune. “We have gotten a lot of the gyms on board. In fact, CrossFit Trussville’s nutritionist and dietitian approved our nutritional facts on our smoothies. Once this happened, our smoothies took off.”
Planet Nutrition’s smoothies are known for their great taste profiles that are gluten free and can be mixed with water. LeJeune said that the smoothies contain easily digestible proteins found in both whey and ISO based smoothies. Fresh fruits including strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, pineapple and banana are also available to add in to all smoothies.
“We try to facilitate as far as smoother mix, drink-ability and good flavors,” said LeJeune. “We also have good numbers, for example, 25 grams of protein per scoop.”
Looking forward, Planet Nutrition is looking at more ways to help the surrounding communities with their fitness goals including the opening of another store in the Pell City area.
“The company strives for helping individuals reach their health and fitness goals,” said LeJeune. “Just like there is always a way to do more for your health, there is always more we can do to help you get there.”