max.bowen@northstarreporter.com
Following a successful first years at New Spot Nutrition in Cumberland, Tayla Menard is expanding the operation with Blended 25 in North Attleborough.
Located at 425 E. Washington St., the store opened in October and offers 25 different protein shakes and teas, similar to New Spot, which opened in 2019. He said the idea for a second location came after hearing that Ohana Nutrition had closed after a brief stay at the same address.
“We completely started from scratch and we just went from there and that was in June,” Menard said. “We opened a couple months after.”
Menard named the business after his late father, whose birthday is on the 25th. Though Menard’s father wasn’t an entrepreneur, he cited a strong work ethic as inspiration. He said the community has been very supportive and credits the six employees for their hard work and dedication.
“It’s a lot, but it’s been rewarding,” Menard said.
Running two businesses is a challenge, and Menard is up at 4:30 a.m. to begin the workday. He works at both locations, sometimes filling in when an employee can’t make their shift. He described the responsibility as “running back and forth.” Starting a second location in the post-pandemic world was also difficult, as many people still have COVID-19 on their mind.
“We (New Spot) weren’t even open a year when the pandemic happened,” Menard said. “I was kind of prepared in the sense where I made changes then to make New Spot fine. I just switched to online ordering.”
Looking down the road, Menard wants to become more involved with the community, potentially partnering with other local businesses to help one another recover from the impacts of the pandemic.
Menard said the protein shake flavors were inspired in part by ice cream flavors, leading to choices such as Coffee Brandy Crunch, Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins and Gingerbread Cannoli, though they’re only around 250 calories per drink. Tea flavors include lemon with mandarin aloe and Baja Blast, just a small sampling of the different types available. Menard is largely self-taught, having made a lot of changes to his diet to get in shape and applying those lessons to the business. There’s been a lot of trial and error as they worked on different flavors.
“I feel like my background is basically just from personal experience of realizing how unhealthy things are,” he said. “Things that we offer, it’s not just for people that are trying to lose weight or anything like that. It’s just good stuff that makes you feel good.”
