Investors Not Drinking Jamba's Juice

Not only are investors not drinking Jamba's(JMBA Quote) juice today, one could argue that investors have metaphorically thrown the company's styrofoam cup into the trash.

Jamba announced after Thursday's market close that it had widened its loss in the second quarter, sending its shares tumbling 10% in after-market trading.

Shares of the company, however, had already been on a downward spiral, after Jamba had announced plans to refranchise up to 150 of its Jamba Juice stores, mostly outside of California, earlier today.

By 6 p.m. EDT, the company's stock was down a whopping 15.5% to $1.20.

"I am pleased to announce this re-franchising initiative, which, given the high level of interest in the Jamba brand, should accelerate our growth and presence outside of our core California markets," President and CEO James White said in a statement. "Refranchising will also allow us to better focus our operational resources to company-owned stores in California to improve efficiencies and performance."

Jamba expects the refranchising program to be complete within 12 to 18 months, and will use profits to pay down debt and fund future growth.

The Praetorian Group will lead the refranchising initiative. Financial terms were not disclosed.

After the close, the company also said it widened its loss in the first quarter to $10.2 million, or 19 cents a share, from a loss of $6.4 million, or 12 cents, in the year-ago period.

Jamba's revenue declined 12% to $88.9 million from $101.6 million last year, while same-store sales tumbled 13.8%.