In 2012, Wan Kim—a South Korean Smoothie King franchisee since 2002—bought the company from the Kuhnaus. Kim then acquired (equivalent to about $M in ) from Standard Charter Private Equity and National Pension Fund to grow the company. To succeed in this growth, Kim had several plans for Smoothie King. Kim planned to open 800 new franchises and the company's first 200 corporately-owned stores. Kim also planned to experiment with selling salads and wraps at these latter locations (in South Korea, they made over 20% of Kim's revenue).