Food & Beverage

Smoothie King Franchise

A smoothie and nutritional-supplement quick-service chain built around blended fruit and protein drinks marketed for fitness and wellness. Stephen C. Kuhnau, Sr. originated the Smoothie King concept in 1973; the company was incorporated in Louisiana in 1987 (redomesticated to Texas in 2018) and has offered franchises since May 1988. Franchised unit count grew every year of the FDD's three-year window, crossing 1,200 franchised units in 2025 while the small company-owned base shrank.

Opening more locationsFounded 1973HQ: Coppell, TX

Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from Smoothie King's own filing.

What it costs to open

From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.

Franchise fee

$30,000

Total to open

$329,850–$683,215

Ongoing royalty

6% of gross sales

What you'd actually spend, over time

The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.

Your estimated annual revenue

Defaulted to a rough food & beverage industry average, not a figure from Smoothie King's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.

Years of ownership

Total cost of ownership over 5 years

$629,850 – $983,215

Startup investment

$329,850–$683,215

Royalty per year (6%)

$60,000

Total royalty, 5yr

$300,000

When would you break even?

Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Smoothie King's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical food & beverage profit margin (~8%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.

Estimated profit margin (% of revenue)

%≈ $80,000/year

Defaulted to a general food & beverage industry benchmark, not a figure from Smoothie King's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.

At that profit, you'd break even in about

4.1–8.5 years

Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Smoothie King is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.

Is Smoothie King actually growing?

Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:

Locations opened vs. closed, by year

Growing

From Item 20 of Smoothie King's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.

+45

+56

+51

202320242025

Year	Franchised units, start	Franchised units, end	Net change
2023	1,048	1,093	+45
2024	1,093	1,149	+56
2025	1,149	1,200	+51

Most recent year (2025): gained 51 franchised units, ending the year at 1,200 total.

What you're actually signing up for

The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.

Training & ongoing support (Item 11)

Item 11: Smoothie King designates a general geographic Search Area to limit early site-selection, but only establishes the actual Protected Territory (~15,000-person business/residential count) after the franchisee secures a lease for a Traditional location.

Territory protection (Item 12)

Item 12: no exclusive territory until a lease is secured for a Traditional location, at which point a Protected Territory is designated by identifiable boundaries; Area Developers under a separate Area Development Agreement receive no exclusive territory either.

Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)

Item 17: 10-year term for both Traditional and Non-Traditional locations, with the right to one additional 10-year renewal term if in good standing and compliant with all Manuals and monetary obligations.

How Smoothie King compares to other Food & Beverage franchises

Across the 50 food & beverage franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $882,585–$2,162,912, with royalties averaging around 5.6% of gross sales (based on the 46 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).

Dave's Hot Chicken

$617,800–$2,170,000 · 6% royalty

Slim Chickens

$1,188,900–$4,944,000 · 5% royalty

Ziggi's Coffee

$315,830–$2,093,361 · 6% royalty

Crumbl

$848,566–$1,472,533 · 8% royalty

Little Caesars

$376,500–$1,769,200 · 6% royalty

Jamba

$480,850–$941,300 · 6% royalty

Tropical Smoothie Cafe

$300,000–$720,500 · 6% royalty

Playa Bowls

$188,675–$636,458 · 6% royalty

Kona Ice

$114,730–$228,601 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Firehouse Subs

$166,671–$950,351 · 6% royalty

Wingstop

$310,400–$1,048,500 · 6% royalty

Jersey Mike's Subs

$436,176–$1,162,228 · 6.5% royalty

Dunkin'

$532,400–$1,832,500 · 5.9% royalty

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

$1,222,045–$3,923,245 · 5% royalty

Del Taco

$1,461,200–$3,313,500 · 5% royalty

Blaze Pizza

$757,000–$1,297,100 · 5% royalty

Church's Texas Chicken

$1,202,400–$1,886,300 · 5% royalty

MOD Pizza

$924,732–$1,220,633 · 5% royalty

Twin Peaks

$2,959,000–$5,734,000 · 5% royalty

McDonald's

$1,470,500–$2,642,000 · 5% royalty

Subway

$263,000–$630,000 · 8% royalty

Taco Bell

$1,859,750–$4,312,200 · 5.5% royalty

Domino's Pizza

$231,450–$743,500 · 5.5% royalty

KFC

$2,107,575–$4,155,000 · 5% royalty

Burger King

$2,039,200–$4,730,600 · 4.5% royalty

Chick-fil-A

$317,521–$3,463,155 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Penn Station

$507,500–$858,750 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Nekter Juice Bar

$243,155–$647,160 · 6% royalty

Jimmy John's

$366,200–$733,500 · 6% royalty

Sonic Drive-In

$1,485,200–$2,522,900 · 5% royalty

Papa John's

$281,485–$890,267 · 5% royalty

Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs

$238,982–$697,322 · 5.5% royalty

Jack in the Box

$1,909,500–$4,041,500 · 5% royalty

Wendy's

$1,523,957–$2,992,000 · 4% royalty

Marco's Pizza

$286,477–$811,186 · 5.5% royalty

Pizza Hut

$846,000–$2,130,000 · 6% royalty

Chicken Salad Chick

$777,000–$998,500 · 5% royalty

Teriyaki Madness

$392,667–$1,121,405 · 6% royalty

Cold Stone Creamery

$390,675–$680,775 · 6% royalty

Scooter's Coffee

$1,163,650–$1,345,750 · 6% royalty

Nothing Bundt Cakes

$475,200–$994,100 · 6% royalty

Five Guys

$977,850–$1,375,750 · 6% royalty

Tim Hortons

$427,500–$3,312,500 · 6% royalty

7 Brew

$940,500–$2,283,500 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Swig

$608,400–$1,718,000 · 7% royalty

Culver's

$3,406,350–$10,294,100 · 4% royalty

Dairy Queen

$1,516,200–$2,543,050 · 4% royalty

Paris Baguette

$727,515–$1,860,550 · 5% royalty

Jollibee

$1,614,568–$4,589,057 · 5% royalty

Keep going

Smoothie King and Chick-fil-A are both food & beverage franchises; Chick-fil-A's total investment starts about $12,329 lower than Smoothie King's. Chick-fil-A Franchise
Smoothie King and Ziggi's Coffee are both food & beverage franchises; Ziggi's Coffee's total investment starts about $14,020 lower than Smoothie King's. Ziggi's Coffee Franchise

Where this came from: Smoothie King only files a Net Worth/Experience Exemption notice with California DFPI (dfpi id 340306, legal name "Smoothie King Franchises, Inc" used here) since 2018, and its Minnesota CARDS filings for 2024-2026 are marked/redline only with no clean copy -- so this entry is instead sourced from Wisconsin's DFI franchise registry: WI file 640867, Amendment filing, FDD uploaded 9/2/2026, effective 9/2/2026 (the underlying Registration was effective 4/8/2026). Item 5: $30,000 Traditional-Store initial franchise fee ($15,000 for a Non-Traditional location). Item 6: the royalty is labeled the "Operating Fee" in Item 6, 6% of Gross Sales subject to a $500/month minimum -- not called "royalty" at all, a labeling trap; the National Marketing Fee (ad fund) is currently 3% of monthly Gross Sales (Smoothie King may raise it to 5% with 60 days' notice), plus an optional Regional Marketing Fee of 2% where established. Item 7 Total (End-Cap or In-Line location): $329,850-$683,215 (a Free-Standing Drive-Thru location runs materially higher, $624,950-$1,253,900; this entry uses the more common End-Cap/In-Line format). Item 20 Table No. 1 confirmed. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-09-02. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.

If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.