Genie Juicery's Melanie Barnish: Leading Ladies

Melanie Barnish is the co-founder of Hong Kong’s premier juicery business: Genie Juicery. Together with her best friend and model Cara G. McIlroy, the Australian duo started their juicing business back in 2011. She talks about starting a business in a completely foreign place and how it compares to home.

I’m from Australia. I grew up in Gold Coast with a really healthy lifestyle, doing a lot of outdoorsy activities such as going on boat trips and spending time at the beach.

I studied fashion [there], and then after university I moved to Hong Kong to start my own brand of footwear and handbags.

I was working in Lai Chi Kok, where I had no access to healthy food except for Starbucks.

I was always travelling for work, and just like everyone else in Hong Kong, I was overworked and always tired.

Coming from Australia and knowing what it feels like to have real, fresh food every day and how that makes your body feel, compared to working like crazy and having terrible Starbucks lunches everyday made me stop and re-think my whole lifestyle.

My best friend Cara found herself in the same position. We both shared the same passion in a healthy lifestyle, so we started talking about plans to open a juice shop in Hong Kong.

Here in Hong Kong you have to pay a fortune for fresh, healthy food. And the choices are very limited.