DALLAS, Jan. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Smoothie King, the world's largest smoothie brand and the first health and fitness fast casual brand of its kind, today announced the appointment of Claudia Schaefer as the company's new Chief Marketing Officer. With an exceptional track record in transforming and elevating well-known restaurant and retail brands, Claudia brings a wealth of experience in driving revenue growth, enhancing profitability, and elevating the customer experience, making her the ideal leader to guide Smoothie King into its next phase of growth.
Schaefer will oversee all marketing efforts for Smoothie King, where she'll focus on further defining the brand's purpose and positioning by leveraging consumer insights to ultimately drive traffic and accelerate sales growth.
"Claudia's expertise in brand-building and strategic marketing will be critical as we continue to strengthen our brand and drive growth in 2025 and beyond," said Wan Kim, CEO of Smoothie King. "We've built some very meaningful momentum in recent quarters, and with Claudia's leadership, I believe we are poised to make 2025 our best year yet. We're so excited to welcome her to the Smoothie King team."
"I'm thrilled to join Smoothie King, a brand whose mission to encourage healthier, more active lifestyles resonates deeply with me," said Claudia Schaefer. "I look forward to leveraging my experience to build on this purpose, connect with our guests in new and meaningful ways, and help drive the brand's continued growth in 2025 and beyond."
Schaefer joins Smoothie King from her most recent role as Chief Experience Officer at Caliber, the $6B parent company of Caliber Collision, where she was instrumental in positioning and marketing the Caliber brand while delivering a seamless and differentiated guest experience. Prior to her tenure at Caliber, Schaefer served as the CMO of multiple QSR and CDR brands, including Jamba and Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen. During both tenures, she successfully increased traffic and sales through strategic marketing efforts focusing on relevance and differentiation. Her past experience also includes significant leadership roles at Brinker International, parent company of Chili's Bar & Grill, where she worked in both marketing and culinary innovation across domestic and global markets.
Smoothie King's new CMO hire follows the brand's most recent quarterly business update and year- end recap. In 2024, Smoothie King opened 84 new stores, including signed agreements for new store openings across 24 states and 39 DMAs. The fourth quarter of 2024 alone saw the opening of 25 stores nationwide, including the opening of the brand's 1,200th domestic store and continued expansion across Chicago – one of the brand's fastest-growing markets. Smoothie King is setting its sights on an even bigger year in 2025 with accelerated growth, forecasting 105 new store openings across the country.
For more information about Smoothie King and franchise opportunities, visit www.smoothiekingfranchise.com.
About Smoothie King Franchises, Inc.
Smoothie King, the original U.S. smoothie franchise—founded in 1973—is a privately held, Dallas-based company with over 1,200 stores nationwide.
The brand is committed to its mission to inspire a healthy and active lifestyle through its Clean Blends initiative, which focuses on providing great-tasting smoothies with more whole fruits and vegetables while removing artificial flavors, colors and preservatives and added sugars in many of its blends. In April 2023, Smoothie King launched Smoothie Bowls, topped with whole fresh fruit and premium Purely Elizabeth™ granola, made with wholesome ingredients, non-GMO fruits and packed with flavor and nutrients. Smoothie King also offers retail products that include sports beverages, energy bars, vitamins, supplements and more.
Repeatedly recognized as a top franchise opportunity, Smoothie King was recently ranked #11 in Entrepreneur's 2024 Top Brands for Multi-Unit Owners, selected as one of the 16 Best Restaurant Franchising Deals for 2024 by QSR Magazine, and recognized in QSR Magazine's QSR 50 ranking as one of the Top 50 Fast-Food Chains by Sales. The brand was also featured in the top 100 of Technomic's annual America's Favorite Chains data, which resulted in ranking #8 in Nation's Restaurant News' "America's Favorite Chains" list, an analysis of Technomic's data.
