NEW ORLEANS, July 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Smoothie King
Franchises, Inc., the premier smoothie and nutritional lifestyle
center, released statistics today showing significant growth during
the first half of 2014 compared to the same timeframe last year.
Same-store sales jumped 7.16 percent in the first quarter compared
to last year and increased to an even stronger 9.79 percent in the
second quarter. Additionally, within the past six months, the
smoothie franchise has opened 21 new locations across the U.S. The
award-winning smoothie company now has 690 stores worldwide and
plans to open an additional 55 by the end of 2014.
"While much of the foodservice industry experienced decreased
traffic and sales earlier this year because of severe winter
weather, Smoothie King remained ahead of the competition and
continued that momentum into the second quarter with positive
same-store sales and aggressive franchise development," said
Smoothie King Global CEO Wan Kim.
"Smoothie King's continued success is credited to our strong
operators who are committed to providing an outstanding in-store
experience year round and our active, healthy fans that
continuously include Smoothie King as part of their daily
lifestyle."
Same-Store Growth
Traffic and sales in the second
quarter were driven by the success of new products, including
Veggie Blends and the brand's new Greek Yogurt Smoothies featuring
Chobani®. Veggie Blends grew to 3rd overall in smoothie sales and
Greek Yogurt Smoothies are 7th overall in smoothie sales.
Franchise Expansion
In addition to the recent store
openings in 2014, Smoothie King has signed 27 franchise agreements
to develop 44 locations in markets such as Florida, South
Carolina, Virginia,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Texas. The company 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, Vietnam, 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:
- In the first year
of operation, a 50-percent reduction on their royalty fees,
paying just 3%.
- In year two,
franchisees will pay royalties of 4.5%.
- In year three,
royalties are charged at the full rate of 6%.
Additionally, franchisees will receive an entire blender
equipment package, which includes five Vita-Mix Quiet One® blenders, for
each of their first three stores.
To learn more about the benefits of owning a Smoothie King, or
for more information and to register for a Discovery Day, please
visit www.smoothiekingfranchise.com or contact
Natalie Johnson at
natalie.johnson@smoothieking.com or (985) 635-6984.
About Smoothie King Franchises Inc.
Smoothie King
Franchises, Inc. is a privately held, New
Orleans-area-based franchise company and the premier
Smoothie Bar and Nutritional Lifestyle Center in the industry.
Smoothie King offers guests the original nutritional fresh-blended
smoothie and healthy retail products, including sports
beverages, energy bars, healthy snacks, vitamin supplements,
herbs, minerals and other sports nutrition products. Smoothie
King opened its first store in 1973 and started as the first
franchised smoothie bar/health food store in the United States in 1989. Smoothie
King currently has 690 units operating in 33 states, the
Caymans, Singapore and the
Republic of Korea. In 2014, Smoothie King was ranked no. 1 by
Entrepreneur magazine in the juice bar category for the 20th year
and no. 86 overall on the 2014 Franchise 500 list.
Visit www.smoothieking.com or www.smoothiekingfranchise.com;
engage on Facebook www.facebook.com/SmoothieKing; follow us on
Twitter at http://twitter.com/smoothieking.
Media Contact:
Claibourne Smith
Fish Consulting
(954) 893-9150
csmith@fish-consulting.com
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SOURCE Smoothie King Franchises, Inc.