Smoothie King
Bottom line
- Total investment $346K – $1.3M including a $30K franchise fee, 6.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $660K/year (median $627K).
- Rated STRONG with a risk score of 46/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 572 loans (below the industry average).
- Established system with 1,201 units across 38 years of franchising — strong brand recognition and operational playbook.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one Smoothie King unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
7%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Smoothie King units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
49.9%
7.57× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
1.88×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$264K
on $1.3M purchase
Total debt
$1.1M
SBA $0.7M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Smoothie King franchisees operate fast-casual smoothie shops focused on health-oriented blended beverages and nutritional products. Day-to-day operations involve managing inventory, preparing customized smoothies to order, staffing point-of-sale, maintaining equipment, and executing local marketing in a protected territory.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 8 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Smoothie King presents caution-level risk: meaningful profitability opacity, active litigation, modest growth, and high capital requirements without disclosed net income benchmarks.
Score breakdown · what drove the 46 / 100 rating
- 01MEDNo disclosed net income data despite $659k average revenue — inability to verify actual profitability and ROI
- 02HIGHTwo active litigation cases involving IP/trade dress disputes and employee stock option claims suggest internal governance and legal compliance issues
- 03MINORSlow unit growth of only 5.1% YoY in a mature QSR segment indicates market saturation or franchisee struggles
- 04MINORHigh investment ceiling ($1.28M) with 6% royalty creates significant break-even burden if net margins are compressed
- 05MEDMissing Item 19 (Financial Performance Representations) prevents independent validation of franchise economics
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
100 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Smoothie King · FDD (2025) PDF