Smoothie King operator Roger Wilder—the largest Smoothie King franchisee in the local market—is developing two new stores in the area with his real estate partner, Donnie Jarreau.
One of the outlets will open later this month as a replacement for Wilder’s existing Smoothie King store at 14241 Coursey Blvd. near Jones Creek Road. The new store will be directly across the street from the existing location and, at 1,110 square feet, will be larger with a drive thru window.
The second location is scheduled to break ground in August on Juban Road in Denham Springs. When completed later this year, Wilder will have 13 stores in the market, nearly half the total Smoothie King outlets in the Capital Region.
Baton Rouge is a particularly strong market for Smoothie King, Wilder says. It has the highest density of Smoothie King stores per capita in the U.S., with approximately one store for every 14,000 residents.
The stores do well, too. They have the highest annualized unit volume of Smoothie King stores in the U.S., says Wilder, who was named International Franchisee of the Year in 2016 by the International Franchise Association.
“We’re killing it,” he says.
According to Smoothie King corporate data, the average outlet grosses nearly $500,000 a year. Wilder says many stores in this market far surpass that average.
Wilder cannot say for sure why Baton Rouge is such a strong market for smoothies, though he attributes it partly to the fact that Smoothie King, which was founded in Metairie in 1973, has been around south Louisiana for a long time.
“We have the luxury of being a very seasoned, mature market,” he says.
Developing a new freestanding Smoothie King isn’t cheap, costing about $500,000, Jarreau says. But freestanding locations do much better than those in an inline shopping center because of the drive through windows, which can increase revenues as much as 50%.
Despite the chain’s success locally, Wilder doesn’t have plans to open additional locations any time soon.
“Our market is pretty saturated,” he says.
—Stephanie Riegel
