Smoothie King Franchises Inc. (

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

Smoothie King) is an American

privately held A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

smoothie A smoothie is a beverage made by puréeing ingredients in a blender. A smoothie commonly has a liquid base, such as fruit juice or milk, yogurt, ice cream or cottage cheese. Other ingredients may be added, including fruits, vegetables, non-dai ...

company. Founded in 1973, the company was bought by a South Korean franchisee in 2012. In the late 2010s, the company was focusing on whole and unmodified ingredients.

Products

On January 1, 2013, the

Center for Science in the Public Interest The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit watchdog and consumer advocacy group that advocates for safer and healthier foods. History and funding CSPI is a consumer advocacy organization. Its f ...

awarded the Peanut Power Plus Grape Smoothie their Xtreme Eating "dis-honor" for its healthlessness; consisting of "peanut butter, banana, sugar, and grape juice", a cup had and of sugar. , the company was focusing on its "Clean Blends initiative" whereby stores' menus featured more smoothies with whole fruits and vegetables, and lacking

food coloring Food coloring, or color additive, is any dye, pigment, or substance that imparts color when it is added to food or drink. They come in many forms consisting of liquids, powders, gels, and pastes. Food coloring is used in both commercial food ...

artificial flavor A flavoring (or flavouring), also known as flavor (or flavour) or flavorant, is a food additive used to improve the taste or smell of food. It changes the perceptual impression of food as determined primarily by the chemoreceptors of the gustat ...

preservatives A preservative is a substance or a chemical that is added to products such as food products, beverages, pharmaceutical drugs, paints, biological samples, cosmetics, wood, and many other products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by ...

, and

added sugar Added sugars or free sugars are sugar carbohydrates (caloric sweeteners) added to food and beverages at some point before their consumption. These include added carbohydrates (monosaccharides and disaccharides), and more broadly, sugars natural ...

Corporate history

Smoothie King was founded in 1973 in

Kenner, Louisiana Kenner (historically french: Cannes-Brûlées) is a city in Louisiana, United States. It is the largest city in Jefferson Parish, and is the largest incorporated suburban city of New Orleans. The population was 66,448 at the 2020 census. History ...

by Steve and Cindy Kuhnau. , Smoothie King was still a

privately held company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

. In 2012, Wan Kim—a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n Smoothie King franchisee since 2002—bought the company from the Kuhnaus. Kim then acquired (equivalent to about $M in ) from Standard Charter Private Equity and National Pension Fund to grow the company. To succeed in this growth, Kim had several plans for Smoothie King. Kim planned to open 800 new

franchises Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

and the company's first 200 corporately-owned stores. He also planned to experiment with selling salads and wraps at these latter locations (in South Korea, they made over 20% of Kim's revenue). In 2009, Smoothie King's per-store

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...

was about , and had reached by 2012. Corporate-wide, revenues were in

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

2017, and in fiscal year 2018. In early 2014, Smoothie King contracted with the

New Orleans Pelicans The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division and play their hom ...

to rename the New Orleans Arena,

Smoothie King Center Smoothie King Center (locally referred to as SKC) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is located in the city's Central Business District, adjacent to Caesars Superdome. The arena opened in 1999 as New Orleans Arena and ...

. The contract was for 2014–2024, and Smoothie King has the option to extend the contract through 2034. The

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

required that all Smoothie King products be tested before the deal was completed, to ensure that they didn't contain any league- banned substances; testing was an eight-month process.

Personnel

CEO since 2012, Wan Kim had Tom O'Keefe as Smoothie King's corporate president in 2014, and in February 2019 he replaced Jennifer Herskind with Rebecca Miller (previously of

On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina is a chain of Tex-Mex food casual dining restaurants located in the United States and South Korea. The chain and brand name is owned by Argonne Capital Group. History The first On The Border location opene ...

) as

chief marketing officer A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a global marketing officer or marketing director, or chief brand officer, is a corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. Whilst historically these titles may ...

. Kim further shuffled his corporate positions in September 2019:

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

Dan Harmon added president to his plate (replacing O'Keefe), chief development officer Kevin King became the chief business development officer, and Miller was promoted to head of field marketing.

Locations

By 2012, Smoothie King was headquartered in

Covington, Louisiana Covington is a city in, and the parish seat of, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 11,564 at the 2020 United States census. It is located at a fork of the Bogue Falaya and the Tchefuncte River. Covington is part of ...

. That year, however, the company took advantage of (equivalent to about $M in ) of incentives to move to

Metairie, Louisiana Metairie ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and is part of the New Orleans metropolitan area. With a population of 143,507 in 2020, Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish and was (a ...

, approximately to the south. , Smoothie King was based in

Coppell, Texas Coppell ( ) is a city in the northwest corner of Dallas County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a suburb of Dallas and a bedroom community in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its population was 42,983 at the 2020 census. A small area in the ...

. Predominantly in the United States, Smoothie King also has locations in

, the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

, and previously had shops in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

(which opened in December 2012, but permanently closed in 2016). CEO Wan Kim has explicitly detailed the company's avoidance of cold-weather location due to other smoothie companies' failures there. In 2018, the company opened its 1001st store.

References

{{food chains in South Korea 1973 establishments in Louisiana 2012 mergers and acquisitions companies based in Dallas fast-food chains of the United States fast-food franchises restaurants established in 1973 restaurants in Louisiana smoothie chains in the United States