Krispy Kreme announced Monday that it will sell doughnuts at roughly 160 McDonald’s restaurants across Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky, significantly expanding the previous market test.
The partnership was first announced in October. Krispy Kreme sold three flavors—Original Glazed, Chocolate Iced with Sprinkles, and Raspberry Filled—in nine Louisville-based restaurants. The doughnuts could be bought all day, individually or in packs of six.
There are two main differences in the expanded test, which starts March 21. One, doughnuts will be available via third-party delivery and the mobile app, in addition to in-store and drive-thru. Second, Krispy Kreme swapped Raspberry Filled for Chocolate Filled.
“The expanded test will help us learn more about operational impact on a larger scale as well as explore customer demand,” Krispy Kreme said in a statement.
The experiment marks an important moment in the doughnut chain’s expansion plan. Krispy Kreme leverages a hub-and-spoke model where it uses several production hubs (Hot Light Theater shops and doughnut factories) to send fresh doughnuts to numerous spokes, otherwise known as points of access (grocery stores, gas stations, carts, food trucks, smaller retail stores, etc.). McDonald’s is the first restaurant to serve as a point of access. At the end of Q4, there were 11,837 points of access globally, including nearly 6,300 in the U.S. and Canada. Krispy Kreme’s long-term goal is to reach 75,000.
Krispy Kreme CEO Michael Tattersfield was optimistic about the McDonald’s venture during the company’s Q4 earnings call earlier in February.
“What we’ve learned in the test is that we can actually manage the operations rigor, the logistics rigor of how do you manage a [quick-service restaurant], our customer from the time demand, the quality demand, and the execution and how it works seamlessly with our DFD route system,” the CEO said. “That’s what’s pretty critical—for us to get that understanding and how our brand also works with another brand as well.”
Other notable tests from McDonald’s recently include the McPlant and the Chicken Big Mac. In Q4, McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales increased 10.3 percent on top of 7.5 percent growth in 2021. On a three-year basis, domestic comps lifted roughly 25 percent. For the 2022 fiscal year, global comps grew 10.9 percent and traffic increased 5 percent.
