With the Smoothie King’s mission to inspire consumers to live a healthy and active lifestyle, the company is able to reach new guests by supporting passionate franchise owners to open new locations in communities across the world. And now Smoothie King is celebrating a major milestone, its 800th store is opening for business.
The 800th Smoothie King location will open August 2 in Orlando, Florida, at 7341 West Sand Lake Road. To celebrate the grand opening, franchisees Todd and Lorraine Pater will give away 800 free 20-ounce smoothies. Smoothie King will also deliver free smoothies to police stations and first responders in Orlando, Winter Park, Oviedo, Lake Mary, and Windermere.
“My vision is for Smoothie King to help more and more guests around the world achieve their nutrition and fitness goals by using our products to live a healthy and active lifestyle," says Wan Kim, Smoothie King’s owner and CEO. “Our pace of opening new locations shows that our strategic development efforts are working in highly competitive markets, and this milestone store is a precursor to where the brand is going in the future. Crossing the 800-unit mark is a major achievement that takes us one step closer to reaching our goal to have 1,000 locations open by the end of 2017.”
The Paters first became familiar with the brand while living in Houston, where the brand has more than 60 locations. When they moved to Florida, they inked a multi-unit development deal that will ultimately bring 12 locations to the state.
“The community here is really embracing the Smoothie King brand,” Todd Paters says. “Our first location has only been open for a few weeks, and we’re seeing sales increase every day. We’re incredibly excited to celebrate this milestone with the brand and give back to the community with this special celebration. It’s a great time to be a franchisee with Smoothie King, and with our current plans to develop a total of 12 stores, we are a clear example that Smoothie King is in rapid growth mode.”
Smoothie King’s 800th store opening comes as the brand celebrates a strong start to the year. In the first half of 2016, the brand boasted a 12.4 percent increase in same-store sales. Smoothie King also opened 44 new stores in 13 states across the Southeast, Northeast, and Midwest. That brand’s growth is still going strong; year to date, Smoothie King has signed 64 franchise and area development agreements that will add another 105 stores to the system. That means the brand is on pace to meet or exceed its goal of opening 1,000 units by the end of 2017.
Multi-unit development, like the Paters’ agreement in Orlando, is fueling a lot of that growth. Between January and June, Smoothie King signed multi-unit area development deals in Chicago, Tucson, Dallas, Baltimore, and Virginia. As the brand moves forward into the second half of 2016, it will continue to build on that momentum by expanding its reach in new markets, both domestically and internationally.
