Smoothie King Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

Gavin Felder Joins the Smoothie King C-Suite Following 16 Years at Yum! Brands

DALLAS, TEXAS (MAY 8, 2024) - Smoothie King, the world's largest smoothie brand and the first health and fitness fast casual brand of its kind, today announced the newest addition to its C-Suite with the appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer, Gavin Felder, effective May 28. In this position, Felder will oversee all financial activities, proactively collaborating with senior functional leaders on strategies to unlock value and ensure the brand’s continued profitability and next phase of growth.

“I take great pride in the teams we’ve built and the culture we’ve created at Smoothie King and we’re happy to welcome Gavin Felder to our distinguished leadership team,” said Wan Kim, CEO of Smoothie King. “Gavin is a visionary leader with a keen eye for innovation and I believe he’s the perfect partner to lead us into the next phase of Smoothie King’s growth story as we look to provide even greater value to our guests and franchise partners.”

Felder is a proven leader with over two decades of global experience building powerful teams to drive growth and deliver transformational results. He spent the last 16 years at global restaurant giant Yum! Brands, most recently serving as Chief Strategy Officer where he led corporate strategy, investor relations, M&A, and Yum’s store innovation efforts. Prior to that, Gavin served in a range of senior leadership roles while at Yum!, including as Commercial Director for KFC UK, CFO of KFC Africa, and CFO of the Global KFC division, where he was responsible for over $1 billion of operating profit and nearly 25,000 restaurants across 140 countries.

"I'm honored to join this world-class team poised for extraordinary growth,” said Felder. “Smoothie King is truly a category-defining brand fueled by an inspiring mission and I couldn't be more excited to partner with our franchisees, suppliers and store teams to take the business to new heights together."

This addition to the executive leadership team comes on the heels of a strong 2023 for Smoothie King, highlighted by significant comp growth and new store development. Q3 2023 marked the highest sales period in the brand’s 50-year history and Q4 2023 marked Smoothie King’s largest new development quarter in seven years. This growth contributed to an 11.5% jump in same store sales and positive traffic growth. Smoothie King’s most recently reported Q1 marked the fifth consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales as well as a combined total of 41 new store openings and commitments so far this year.

Smoothie King has repeatedly been recognized as a top franchise opportunity, having recently been featured in the top 100 of Restaurant Business's and Nation's Restaurant News' 2023 Top 500 lists. The brand was recently named the No. 1 most beloved limited-service brand among millennials in Technomic’s “2023 America’s Favorite Chains” study, and recently ranked number 15 in Entrepreneur magazine's highly competitive Franchise 500 ranking of the top franchise brands. Smoothie King has also been included in QSR magazine's “Best Franchise Deals” and annual “QSR 50 Contenders” list and was selected for Franchise Times' "Top 400 Franchises" list.

For more information about Smoothie King, please visit www.smoothieking.com.

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