Smoothie King Serves Hospitals

Smoothie King Franchise Development Manager Stephen Foley says the brand has perfected its operations in many non-traditional settings, but there’s one space that even he was surprised to find was a big success: hospitals.

“It really couldn’t be any more perfect; there are thousands of people moving through hospitals every day that could benefit from a healthy, fast and convenient option,” said Foley. “Hospitals just haven’t necessarily been the first place we’ve thought of for potential development, until now.” Foley says twolocations are open in hospitals, and their franchisee in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is doing particularly well.

Foley hopes it’s a model the brand will be able to replicate across the country.

Patrick Fritscher, who also owns a non-traditional kiosk in the Mall of Louisiana, says he stumbled upon his opportunity to open a location in Our Lady of the Lake hospital in Baton Rouge when his wife, who works in heart surgery, was transferred there. “I first realized there was an opportunity here simply through my wife’s recaps of break room conversations,” he said. “When her co-workers found out I owned a Smoothie King, people started saying ‘Oh we’d love to have one here.’”

Fritscher’s hospital location is the only Smoothie King in the country open 24 hours a day, and interestingly, about 22 percent of the business at the location is done between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

“That’s been one of the biggest surprises actually. I thought the majority of our guests would be patients and visitors, because of the health-value in our product, but it has turned out that the majority of our guests are hospital staff; it’s about an 80/20 split,” said Fritscher.

Foley is focused on a similar message when opening a dialogue with other potential hospital partners. Hospital staff, including nurses and doctors, are typically a very health-conscious demographic and are often in need of a quick option for dining because of their fast-paced schedules.

Fritscher said he’s working to keep up with the hospital staff’s busy lives. “I’ve added blenders and staff to continually increase the speed at the hospital location, because often people only have a few minutes before they have to be back to their patients.”

Smoothie King has recognized the development in hospitals as a great growth opportunity, particularly for multi-unit franchisees who have already saturated their market with traditional locations. The concept also provides value to the hospital because of the mass appeal to staff and visitors.

While developing in hospitals does present some unique challenges, Foley and the rest of the development team are confident in the flexibility of the brand and the purpose it can serve in the healthcare sector.

“Of course there are going to be different space requirements and, depending on the hospital, there will be a unique set of guidelines and restrictions we’ll have to work within; some hospitals are private, some are non-profit, some will require you to work through a food service company,” said Foley. “In some sense we’ll have to work through unique details on a case-by-case basis, but we’ve already done a lot of the legwork by perfecting our non-traditional models which can range anywhere from 300 square feet to 800 or even operate as a stand-alone kiosk, and now we have a couple of hospital models we can point to as a great blueprint of how well this can work.”

Fritscher says he’s focused on perfecting the model because he knows it hasn’t yet reached its full potential.

“I am so excited about this location because we’ve already had so much success, and I know we haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s possible here,” he said. “We are in talks for in-room delivery for patients and deliveries for the staff who work in the office buildings that are on the campus here, which would be huge.”

“This takes us back to the core of Smoothie King and what we’re all about,” added Foley. “We can make our product fit any health requirement, whether it’s protein levels, sugar restrictions, food allergies. We can literally accommodate anything, which obviously could be a game changer for patients in particular.”

Over the next two years, Foley hopes to have 10 franchisees with locations in hospitals and also aims to have signed at least one multi-unit deal with one of the country’s largest hospital systems.