Smoothie King to relocate its headquarters to North Texas this summer

It's confirmed. Smoothie King will relocate its headquarters to North Texas this summer, the company’s CEO told the Dallas Business Journal. Show Full Story

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Currently based in Metairie, Louisiana, the brand will move to Irving’s Cypress Waters development in June to support its burgeoning footprint, said Smoothie King’s CEO Wan Kim.

Kim added that his company was attracted to the Dallas area due to its central location, talent pool and access to high-quality vendors and suppliers.

“Dallas offers the advantages of being a major food and beverage hub,” Kim said in an statement to the DBJ. “Smoothie King has a strong presence in the Dallas area with more than 50 locations, and the move will support our continued growth.”

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With the relocation, Smoothie King will keep an office in Metairie, where about 20 percent of its corporate team will continue to be based.

It will also keep naming rights at The Smoothie King Center, the home arena of the New Orleans Pelicans.

The DBJ first reported in November that Smoothie King was preparing for a move to Dallas-Fort Worth. At the time, sources who declined to be named said the brand was looking to place its corporate operations in 20,000 square feet of office space at Cypress Waters.

It’s not the first time the smoothie brand has considered a move to the Big D. At the end of 2017, a $2.4 million economic incentive deal between Smoothie King affiliate SK USA Inc. and the state of Louisiana’s department of economic development was fulfilled. The deal was reached after Smoothie King was looking to relocate to Dallas about five years ago, according to The Times-Picayune.

North Texas is home to two of Smoothie King’s competitors: Smoothie Factory, a subsidiary of Dallas’ BRIX Holdings, and Jamba Juice (Nasdaq: JMBA), which relocated to Frisco in 2016 from Emeryville, California.

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Smoothie King says its on track to grow to 1,000 locations nationally this year, focusing on 16 key markets: Dallas; Miami; Baltimore; Indianapolis; New York; Cincinnati; Denver, Phoenix; San Antonio; Chicago; Orlando; Austin, Washington D.C; Charlotte, North Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; and Jacksonville, Florida.

Last year, it opened 99 locations across the country and achieved systemwide sales of $401.8 million.

The DBJ will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.

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