Smoothie chains battle for market share in a formerly quiet segment
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Starbucks once again reigns supreme in estimated or reported U.S. systemwide sales among Beverage-Snack chains, aided by Latest Year/fiscal 2018 growth of 7.85% — up almost 2 percentage points over the preceding year — to $20.5 billion.
The real sales growth success story, however, relates to the smoothie chains. Jamba, formerly Jamba Juice, still leads on the sales chart among smoothie players, but competitors Tropical Smoothie Café and Smoothie King showed strong double-digit growth in the latest year, outpacing Jamba’s 2.45% increase.
Tropical Smoothie topped the growth chart for all beverage chains with a 20.25% increase in sales, followed by Smoothie King with a 10.41% increase.
Both Tropical Smoothie and Smoothie King also grew their unit counts by double digits. Tropical Smoothie reached 719 units in the latest year, up 14.49%, and Smoothie King reached 901 units, a 10.55% increase. The 781-unit Jamba, meanwhile, declined in unit count by more than 2.62%.
Among coffee players, Dunkin’, formerly Dunkin’ Donuts, rebranded to shift the focus on the beverage menu and revamped food offerings, such as plant-based breakfast sandwiches. The chain saw a nearly 4% increase in Latest Year/fiscal 2018 sales to $8.8 billion, but it remains to be seen whether new marketing moves will maintain momentum.
See the top 10 beverage-snack brands.
