Tropical Smoothie Cafe

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Tropical Smoothie Cafe is a restaurant in the U.S.A., its name is often shortened to Tropical Smoothie. In addition to smoothies the company sells sandwiches made from Boar's Head, and Lay's potato chips. Tropical Smoothie Cafe began as a smoothie shop in 1993. The company was founded in 1997. The first franchised store opened in 1997 in Tallahasse, FL.

In 1999 they created a new niche in the smoothie category by introducing a line of high quality food items. A year later they teamed up with the well known Boar's Head brand to be the only smoothie chain to offer their meat, cheese, and soups to customers. After explosive growth there was a need to enhance the total customer experience. They redesigned their store's decor to offer an upscale tropical theme with bamboo walls, palm trees, bright colors, and original artwork creations. The franchise celebrates its 10 year anniversary in 2007 and is opening a new store at a pace of every 6-7 days.

The founders, Eric & Delora Jenrich and David Walker, came from extensive franchise backgrounds and used their knowledge to propel Tropical Smoothie Cafe to become one of the fastest growing franchises in the country. As they have grown they have recruited some of the best talent from the food industry including the hiring of their chief operating officer in 2006 who was the former vice president of operations with Cold Stone Creamery, a concept that shared similar type upscale operating procedures.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe operates in 31 different states. Due to the fast growth of the franchise they hired two outside companies to help with their growth. They have created a real estate system unlike most franchises, in that they research the entire city prior to developing any stores to determine if the city is a viable area and pinpoint exactly what sites are most viable. In 2006, Tropical Smoothie Cafe opened their 200th store in Virginia Beach, VA In 2007 when most restaurants showed a decline in same store sales from the previous year, they were able to show positive same store sales and in fact posted an average same store sales percentage higher than that of other major smoothie chains and even the well known Starbucks coffee chain. The company posted over 100 million dollars in sales during a 12 month period between 2006 and 2007.

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