Smoothie King Franchises Inc., the smoothie and nutritional lifestyle center, announced today that it has signed a five-store development agreement for Missouri with a new franchisee. The smoothie chain will mark its entry into Columbia this November with plans to develop additional locations throughout the state over the next five years.
Jackie Floyd, a first-time franchisee for the brand, will open the first Smoothie King location on 805 East Nifong Blvd. in Columbia. Additional locations are planned to open over the next five years in West Columbia, East Columbia, Downtown Columbia, and Jefferson City.
“Smoothie King is growing rapidly across Missouri and we see ample opportunity to continue to develop the brand in markets such as Kansas City, Springfield, St. Joseph, and Joplin,” says Dan Hannah, vice president of business development for Smoothie King. “Over the next five years, we’re aiming to have more than 50 stores open in the state and passionate franchisees like Jackie will help us not only grow our presence, but also bring hundreds of jobs to these communities.”
Smoothie King currently has 21 locations in the state, including more than a dozen in the St. Louis area, with three additional stores planned to open in the market this year.
“We’re excited to be part of the Smoothie King’s key growth strategy to target core and emerging markets where there is an increasing demand for our products,” says Floyd. “We think Columbia is the perfect place for our first location, and we look forward to catering to healthy lifestyles across the state of Missouri for years to come.”
Even with more than 500 locations in the U.S., the brand still has extensive smoothie franchise opportunities across the country. Smoothie King has an aggressive growth strategy to add more than 900 new franchised and corporate stores domestically over the next four years and is currently targeting expansion in Tampa, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. Internationally, Smoothie King has plans to develop 500 new franchised and corporate locations in target markets such as Singapore, Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates over the next five years.
As part of its aggressive growth strategy, Smoothie King is targeting multi-unit owners and operators in the food and beverage or retail industry. To attract this audience, Smoothie King began offering reduced royalties and free equipment to franchisees that sign an area development agreement for a minimum of three stores. Through its reduced royalty incentive, franchisees will receive:a 50 percent reduction on their royalty fees—down to three percent—in the first year of operation; in year two, royalties of 4.5 percent; and in year three, royalties are charged at the full rate of six percent.
Additionally, franchisees will receive an entire blender equipment package, which includes five Vita-Mix Quiet One blenders, for each of their first three stores.
