Smoothie King Appoints Vice President Of Business Development To Drive Brand's Expansion Across The U.S.

NEW ORLEANS, April 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Smoothie King Franchises, Inc., the premier smoothie and nutritional lifestyle center, announced today it has named Michael Bruno Vice President of Business Development to help drive the brand's expansion in new and existing markets across the U.S.

"We are thrilled to have Michael on board to lead our developments efforts as we plan to add more than 900 new franchised and corporate locations domestically over the next four years," said Smoothie King Global CEO Wan Kim. "He has a proven track record of driving business growth and we are confident that his extensive franchising background and ownership experience will help Smoothie King exceed our development goals."

Bruno has nearly 20 years experience in both senior executive roles at global franchise companies such as Luxottica, Dunkin' Brands, 1800Flowers.com, and as a multi-unit franchisee with Dunkin' Donuts and East of Chicago Pizza Company. Prior to joining Smoothie King, Bruno served as vice president of retail sales, operations and franchise development for Fannie May Fine Chocolates, a division of 1800Flowers.com, where he oversaw a $69.5 million retail division that included 100 corporate stores and 45 franchised stores.

Smoothie King experienced strong growth last year with the signing of 93 single-unit and 10 area development franchise agreements and is on track to open over 100 new franchise and corporate locations in the U.S. this year. The brand recently reported same-store sales of approximately 7.2 percent for the first quarter of 2014.

Even with more than 500 locations in the U.S., the brand still has extensive smoothie franchise opportunities available in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest and Northeast regions. Smoothie King also continues to expand internationally through both master franchise and corporate stores in South Korea, Singapore and the Cayman Islands, and is focusing on identifying partners in several key countries in Asia and the Middle East.

Smoothie King is actively recruiting multi-unit franchisees to join the brand. Franchisees should possess a passion for the brand and be dedicated to serving the community. While restaurant experience is not required, the ideal candidate for the smoothie franchise should have an entrepreneurial spirit, as well as sales, marketing, restaurant and/or retail experience. To fuel growth, Smoothie King will be exhibiting at the 2014 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference in Las Vegas from April 23-25, 2014. Interested franchisees can visit booth #521 to learn more about the brand and speak with Smoothie King executives.

To learn more about ownership opportunities with Smoothie King, or for more information and to register for a Discovery Day, please visit www.smoothiekingfranchise.com or contact Natalie Johnson at [email protected] 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 more than 675 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:
Elayne Sommers
Fish Consulting
(954) 893-9150
[email protected]

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SOURCE Smoothie King Franchises, Inc.