Tropical Smoothie Cafe, sometimes referred to as simply Tropical Smoothie, is a restaurant franchise in the United States. In addition to smoothies, the cafes offer sandwiches, wraps, salads, flat breads, and introduced bowls to their food line in 2017. Tropical Smoothie Cafe currently operates more than 630 locations nationwide.
Video Tropical Smoothie Cafe
History
Tropical Smoothie began as a smoothie shop in 1993 along the panhandle of Florida. Tropical Smoothie Franchise Development Corporation was founded in 1997 in Destin, Florida, and the first franchised store opened in 1998 in Tallahassee, Florida. Currently, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 1999, they created a niche in the smoothie category by introducing a line of food items including sandwiches and wraps. As more locations opened, the individual Cafes redesigned their store decor to offer a beach house theme with bright white walls, an open kitchen concept, vibrant colors, and tropical artwork.
In 2006, Tropical Smoothie Cafe opened their 200th store in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and in 2011 they opened their 300th store in Fort Myers, Florida.. They opened their 400th location in Toledo, Ohio, 500th location in Westland, Michigan, and in 2017 their 600th location in Joplin, Missouri. Tropical Smoothie Cafe is now opening a new store at a pace of every 3-4 days, an improvement from their pace of every 6-7 days in 2007, their 10th anniversary year.
Founders and original owners Eric and Delora Jenrich and David Walker came from franchise backgrounds and used that knowledge to grow Tropical Smoothie Cafe. As they grew, they recruited others from the food industry, including the hiring of the current Chief Executive Officer, Mike Rotondo, who had previous experience at franchise companies such as Great Wraps, Arby's and HoneyBaked Ham.
In 2012, private equity firm Buckhead Investment Partners (BIP) bought a controlling interest in Tropical Smoothie Café. Founders Eric Jenrich and David Walker, the former owners of Tropical Smoothie Café, remained on the board of directors, and former Chief Operating Officer, Mike Rotondo, was promoted to replace Jenrich as Chief Executive Officer. BIP partner Scott Pressly, who was a financial and strategic adviser to the chain since 2007, is now the company's chairman.
Today, customers continue to fall in love with the Tropical Smoothie Cafe experience as they expand into more than 44 states. Their love for the brands big bold flavors has led the company to post over 400 million dollars in sales during 2017.
Maps Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Mission
Their mission is to inspire a healthier lifestyle - franchisees can feel good about what they are offering in their community by providing a healthier alternative to conventional fast food but with a bit of tropical fun. Their core values are solid relationships, creative spirit, playing to win and living better. Their relationships are founded on trust, doing the right thing and respect for their franchisees, teams, vendors and partners. They believe that the healthier they are in how they work, live, eat and give back to their communities, the better more fulfilling lives everyone will lead. They are always focused on feeding people well and treating people well in the Cafes.
Menu
Tropical Smoothie Cafe serves delicious, nutritious food and are always on the razor's edge of making sure their products taste good and that they are also healthy for the consumers. Tropical Smoothie Cafe's menu includes smoothies, sandwiches, flat-breads, wraps, bowls, and breakfast items. They offer superfood, classic, indulgent, and supercharged smoothies along with supplements that may be added to each smoothie. The best-selling smoothie has continued to be the Island Green.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe also rolls out Limited Time Offerings 4-5 times per year. Previous LTOs have included a spinach wrap and salad, a watermelon mojito-flavored smoothie, a spicy Thai chicken wrap, a sweet chili chicken flatbread, and more. In March 2016, Tropical Smoothie Cafe unveiled their newest menu item--Cali Chicken Club Flatbread and subsequently added more new menu items as a part of its menu refresh initiative in 2017.
Tropical Smoothie Cafes sales are made up of 50% smoothie sales and 50% food sales.
In May 2013, Tropical Smoothie Cafe began offering a vegan, non-gmo meat substitute called Beyond Meat. Beyond Meat is made of a blend of soy and pea protein, flours, and fiber. In July 2013, Tropical Smoothie Cafe announced that Beyond Meat would become a permanent fixture on the menu.
Charitable Services
To celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2007, Tropical Smoothie Cafe created a holiday called National Flip Flop Day. Every year, on the third Friday in June, Tropical Smoothie Café celebrates National Flip Flop Day. Customers who come into a participating Cafe from 2 pm to 7 pm, while wearing flip flops, will receive a free 16oz. Sunshine Smoothie. Tropical Smoothie gives proceeds of a $1 paper flip flop from customers to send ill children and their families to Camp Sunshine.
Over the past decade, Tropical Smoothie Café has raised over $5.4 million to support Camp Sunshine's mission to provide an authentic camp experience for children with life threatening illnesses and their entire families.
If you know a family who would benefit from Camp Sunshine, help us spread the sunshine by having them apply today at www.campsunshine.org.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe Franchise Opportunities
At a time when there's more focus than ever on healthier food options and active lifestyles, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is perfectly positioned to become #1 in the healthier food franchise category. Maybe that's why they're opening a new Cafe every week.
The fast-casual concept is something franchisees can be proud to own, as they provide healthier options for people in their community. They can feel good about serving great-tasting and innovative smoothies, sandwiches, flatbreads, wraps, and salads.
What really distinguishes Tropical Smoothie Cafe from other smoothie franchises is the mix of food and smoothies, which allows owners to capitalize on multiple dayparts: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks, and catering. This helps drive average ticket sales over $8.25, allows for higher gross sales, and consistent system-wide double digit sales growth in this $1.1 billion industry.
In 2016, the top 50% of franchisees had average gross sales of $846,431.
It's all part of the brands commitment to help set up Franchise Owners for success: o They continue to innovate, seeking out ways to hold down costs without sacrificing quality. o They leverage a full spectrum of marketing tools to drive awareness, excitement, trial, and loyalty for the brand. o The Tropical Rewards app allows for one-touch mobile payments, digital ordering, and loyalty program access. It's just one of the many ways the brand strives to strengthen the exceptional Tropical Smoothie Cafe experience to keep customers coming back for more. o They have online tools in place to help Franchise Owners monitor their food costs, labor costs, and customer relations.
Tropical Smoothie Café looks for people who understand and love the restaurant business. But equally as important, they want Franchise Owners to understand the importance of peerless customer service and community outreach. They value innovation, creativity, and a competitive mindset.
Qualified candidates should have:
o Business experience (restaurant experience preferred) o $125,000 in liquid assets and a minimum net worth of $350,000
More information about franchising a Tropical Smoothie Café location can be found at www.tropicalsmoothiefranchise.com
References
External links
- Official website
- National Flip Flop Day official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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