Ellis in juice wonderland

Celebrity businessman Marc Ellis is set to make $5 million out of his juice brand Charlie's.

And he's also starting to talk about marriage.

Ellis lives with his partner, stunning South American Augustina Mon and said yesterday: "I'm at the time in my life where a lot of my friends are getting married and having kids. I'm thinking about it. When you meet someone who you dig, you want to settle down."

Plans have emerged to list Charlie's this week on the New Zealand stock exchange.

If it goes ahead, Ellis and partner Stefan Lepionka will receive $5m in shares each.

Ellis said the float would give the company the chance to accelerate its plans to expand into a wider range of products, using the brand to convey excellence and quality.

"It could be 30 great-looking taxis around Auckland dropping you home safely," he said. Don't expect that though - Ellis and Lepionka are keeping very quiet about the beverage, food and services they are considering branding with Charlie's.

"We were trying to show New Zealand what juice was," Ellis told the Herald on Sunday.

"New Zealand didn't know what good juice was."

As well as the company has done, Ellis said he and Lepionka were not good at celebrating their successes.

"We know where we want to get it and in the scheme of things we're a long way from that.

"Now, we should be able to turn up the volume on what the brand stands for.

"It gives us a chance to have a crack at Coke and Frucor."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY