Smoothie King Franchises Inc., a smoothie and nutritional lifestyle center, announced strong same-store sales growth of approximately 7.2 percent for the first quarter of 2014.
“Many quick-serve concepts saw sales and traffic decline because of the severe winter weather we had in many parts of the U.S., but Smoothie King continued to experience impressive same-store sales results,” says Smoothie King Global CEO Wan Kim. “As we continue to outpace the competition, Smoothie King has proven to be one of the best franchise opportunities in the segment as consumers’ desire to live a more healthy, active lifestyle drives traffic to our locations year round.”
Traffic and sales in the first quarter were primarily driven by the introduction of the brand’s first smoothies featuring vegetables, Veggie Blends, which blend fruit with carrot and kale. Smoothie King also signed 14 franchise agreements to develop 22 locations, and is on track to open 26 new franchised locations and three corporate stores in the second quarter of 2014.
Smoothie King plans to add more than 900 new franchised and corporate locations domestically over the next four years. Even with more than 500 locations in the U.S., the brand still has smoothie franchise opportunities available in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, and Northeast regions. Smoothie King also continues to expand internationally through both master franchise and corporate stores in South Korea, Singapore, and the Cayman Islands, and is focusing on identifying partners in several key countries in Asia and the Middle East.
