Krispy Kreme Announces National Partnership with McDonald's
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Your local Golden Arches will soon come with a glaze.
Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s announced in a March 26 news release that Krispy Kreme donuts will be coming to every McDonald’s outlet in America by the end of 2026.
The news was a treat for investors, who sent Krispy Kreme stock up 40 percent the day of the announcement.
The partnership underwent some testing at McDonald’s outlets in the Kentucky cities of Lexington and Louisville starting in 2022 before going national, according to Reuters.
The fast-food giant will begin having the donuts in the second half of this year.
We’re lovin’ our sweetest new partnership with @McDonalds, rolling out later this year thru 2026! Of course, we must celebrate with you! 🍔 🍩
🚨 Today, 3/26, walk into a participating U.S. Krispy Kreme shop from 5pm to 9pm and get a FREE Original Glazed® Doughnut on us. 🚨 pic.twitter.com/05xU9FT1ip— Krispy Kreme (@krispykreme) March 26, 2024
McDonald’s plans to stock three donut flavors, according to the news release.
Customers can get the original glazed donuts, chocolate iced donuts with sprinkles, and chocolate iced “kreme”-filled donuts either individually or in boxes of six.
Donuts will arrive at McDonald’s in time for breakfast customers and last until the supply at any store is exhausted.
“Significantly, by making Kreme Krispy accessible to fans nationwide through this partnership, we expect to more than double our points of access by the end of 2026,” Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth said in a statement.
Tariq Hassan, McDonald’s USA’s chief marketing and customer experience Officer, said, “This partnership is an exciting next step in that journey and a chance to unlock new business opportunities in the breakfast category and throughout the day.”
Krispy Kreme uses what it calls a “hub and spoke” model in which stores or production facilities make the donuts, which are currently available at retail outlets that include grocery stores and gas stations, according to CNBC.
“We think we can service about 6,000 restaurants with our existing infrastructure, mostly doughnut shops, which have excess capacity,” Charlesworth told the outlet.
To reach the roughly 7,500 McDonald’s outlets it can’t currently serve, Krispy Kreme has been growing its capacity.
As that capacity expands, Charlesworth said, Krispy Kreme will also try to add more outlets in grocery stores or convenience shops.
“That means that the overall efficiency and productivity of our distribution network will significantly improve over time, not just because of all those local deliveries,” he said.
Because the chain’s stores and facilities currently make more donuts than are sold, the extra sales will not mean vastly higher costs when volume increases.
“Overall, therefore, it makes our system more profitable to grow the deliver fresh daily channel, and McDonald’s is an accelerator of that,” Charlesworth told CNBC.
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