Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme

History

Krispy Kreme is an international chain of doughnut stores. Founder Vernon Rudolph bought a secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe from a New Orleans French chef, rented a building in what is now historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and began selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts on July 13, 1937 to local grocery stores. The parent company is Elrich, Inc. which is based in Winston-Salem. While selling assorted types of doughnuts, Krispy Kreme’s signature item is a glazed doughnut that is traditionally served warm. In the 1940s and 1950s, Krispy Kreme built a mix plant and developed a distribution system that delivered the perfect dry doughnut mix to each Krispy Kreme store. It was then that Rudolph and his equipment engineers invented and built Krispy Kreme’s own doughnut-making equipment. The company continued to enjoy growth throughout the Southeast in the 1960s and began expanding outside of its traditional roots. The design of Krispy Kreme stores became consistent including the hallmark green tile roofs and heritage road sign. Vernon Rudolph died in 1973 which triggered slow growth and lead to the selling of the company to Beatrice Foods Company in 1976. In the early 1980s, a small group of the early franchisees bought Krispy Kreme back from Beatrice Foods. It was then that the company began to expand outside of the Southeast and opened its first store in New York City in 1996. Soon after in 1999, the first store in California opened and national expansion was underway. In April of 2000, Krispy Kreme held an initial public offering of common stock. It opened the first international store in Canada in 2001. The first stores outside of North America opened in Sydney, Australia and in London, England in 2003. Since then, Krispy Kreme stores have opened in Asia, Mexico, the Middle East, Puerto Rico, and Turkey. International expansion is continuing and in addition, new products are coming available ("About Us: History,"...