The restaurant industry is ripe for smoothie-driven operations and Tropical Smoothie is cashing in.

The smoothie franchise opened 86 restaurants in 2016, hitting the 500th location mark and they’re looking to open two per week in the upcoming year, according to a recent article in QSR Magazine.

Tropical Smoothie CEO Mike Rotondo said he saw the benefits to the quick-service food industry and knew his business could sell smoothies better than any burger or sandwich chain could.

“We did not see a decrease in traffic when some of these big brands started throwing around smoothies. That didn’t hurt us. I think what it did was it helped people realize, ‘Well this isn’t a very good smoothie but boy, there’s a lot of benefits to smoothies.’ And that’s when they turned to us,” he told QSR Magazine.

Rotondo said the franchise is more excited than ever as they continue to grow.

“And the reason for that is that Tropical Smoothie is really kind of emerging into this field that is on fire and we’re not just growing for growth’s sake. This is sustainable and hard-hitting. This is growth that is going to continue.”

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