It may be easier to find labor in 2023, but challenges around turnover and training have continued, which can compromise beverage consistency and brand loyalty.
Dallas-based Smoothie King Franchises Inc., a leading contender in the smoothie bar category, has a tried-and-true remedy for that. Even during the pandemic, the brand recorded double-digit growth, opening 263 new stores in 2020 and 109 in 2021.
For Smoothie King, beverage consistency, speed of service, and the overall customer experience are all tied closely to its choice of commercial blender, The Quiet One® by Vitamix Commercial. Each Smoothie King location operates multiple Vitamix® blenders powering through tough ingredients, back-to-back, to prepare up to 200 smoothies per day.
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Back in the 1990s, when smoothies were rapidly gaining in popularity and Smoothie King was establishing itself as a leading chain restaurant, Vitamix was one of the few suppliers able to deliver blending equipment that could meet the high-performance characteristics the restaurant required.
When Vitamix introduced The Quiet One in 2010, Smoothie King embraced the blender as a new standard for power, speed of service, consistency, and reliability.
Today, each of The Quiet One blenders that Vitamix manufactures for Smoothie King is outfitted with custom programs optimized for Smoothie King’s blend profile, consistency, and texture. The programming also aids in speed of service, minimizes runtimes, and ensures efficient execution. Staff members just press one button on the front of the machine, and the programming handles the rest.
“So, if you go to a Smoothie King in Austin, Texas, and a Smoothie King in Miami, Florida, and you order the same smoothie, then you are going to get the same experience,” says Lisa Klein, vice president, global commercial and international household sales, Vitamix.
Smoothie King also values The Quiet One because it’s quiet—quiet enough that employees and customers can carry on a conversation while it runs. The blender’s sound enclosure seals with a twist-lock design that holds the enclosure in place. Rubber components between the upper and lower parts of the enclosure aid in the seal and dampen vibration. In addition, The Quiet One’s motor is suspended on a system of rubber grommets, further reducing sound.
“It’s important, especially when you have four–six blenders going simultaneously,” says Lori Primavera, vice president of research and development and product management at Smoothie King. “Without that technology, Smoothie King locations would be extremely noisy. For the store environment, you want to hear the blender—because it is a smoothie place—but you don’t want it to be so loud that you cannot have a conversation.”
The partnership between Smoothie King and Vitamix Commercial has been a winning formula for both brands. Smoothie King is now the largest smoothie brand in the world, with more than 1,300 locations, and Vitamix Commercial has a presence in 130 countries.
To learn more, visit vitamix.com/us/en_us/commercial/ourdifference.
