New Orleans-Smoothie King Franchises, Inc., to be named as Franchisee of the Year in its annual conference held in New Orleans. There are more than a thousand corporate members, partner vendors franchise partners, franchise partners and partners vendors from all over the country that are in attendance. At present, David and Dawn Cotrone, as well as their son David Cotrone, Jr., were acknowledged for their outstanding operations, sales and inputs to the success of Smoothie King.
"We acknowledge the family for their strong commitment and loyalty to Smoothie King and for encouraging people to practice active and healthy living," said Wan Kim, Smoothie King Global Chief Executive Officer.
"The Cotrones embodies our ideal franchise partner who genuinely understands our organization and principles. They give purpose in offering smoothies to the market. As we focus on expansion both locally and globally, its is imperative for us to accept ideal candidates such as the Cotrones to our organization." The Cotrones had their pilot store in Bradenton, Fla., in the year 2007. During that year, they became the New Franchisee of the Year, and started opening more stores in the area. The family is planning to put up a fourth shop that offers drive-thru service next year.
"This award gives the family huge honor and I am very proud of our team for their dedication and hard work," said David Cotrone Sr. "Smoothie King has been doing a great job in offer high quality products as well as continuously evolving the brand by opening new store design and fresh product pipeline, that will become the leader in the competitive world of smoothie industry. We are very excited with our stable partnership and improvement with Smoothie King."
Even with over 500 locations in America, the company still has numerous smoothie franchise opportunities all over the country. Smoothie King has been very focused on generating competitive growth strategy. It is aiming to add 900 more franchised and company-owned stores locally in the next four years. At present the next target locations would be Chicago, Tampa, Washington D.C., Baltimore and Ohio. In the global scene, Smoothie King is planning to develop 500 new franchised and company-owned stores. Areas such as Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and UAE are some of their target markets in the next five years.
