With consumers feeling a squeeze on their wallets, Krispy Kreme plans to highlight what it does best—Original Glazed Doughnuts. CEO Josh Charlesworth described it as the brand’s most beloved and affordable product.
The chain will offer additional savings for purchases of two or more dozen and use “meaningful discounts” to drive demand and turn occasions like National Doughnut Day (June 6) into buzz-worthy events.
“We see particularly for large families and gatherings looking to buy more than a dozen that we want to bring value, and the Original Glazed can do that,” Charlesworth said during Krispy Kreme’s Q4 earnings call. ” … I mean, very practically, it’s our easiest doughnut that we make. It’s the core of what we do. More than half of our sales. It’s the highest margin as well. So not only is it iconic for the consumer differentiating [us] versus the competition, but the best way for us to sustainably profitably grow the business in all our channels.”
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So far in 2025, Krispy Kreme has seen a choppy start at its traditional retail locations because of freezing temperatures and wildfires. Value-conscious guests continue to feel pressure as well. However, Charlesworth said consumers “remain highly engaged with the Krispy Kreme brand.” To his point, Valentine’s Day was the company’s biggest U.S. retail sales day ever. And the brand found success with its viral Grinch video series promoting its Grinch Christmas Specialty Doughnuts collection.
Krispy Kreme is also making it a lot easier for customers to find its doughnuts wherever they turn.
In 2024, the company’s U.S. delivered fresh daily doors business (grocers, restaurants, warehouse clubs, gas stations, convenience stores, etc. that sell doughnuts) surpassed $250 million in sales for the first time. Krispy Kreme finished the year with 9,644 DFD doors in the U.S., an increase from 6,808 in 2023 and 5,729 in 2022. It also has 4,583 DFD doors internationally. Q4 also marked the chain’s first quarter with over $100 million in global DFD door revenue.
Krispy Kreme continues to expand with major partners like Kroger, Walmart, Costco, Publix, Target, and its first restaurant, McDonald’s.
“We’ve consistently seen over the last couple of years as we’ve deployed this strategy of bringing the doughnuts to more people, the way we’re bringing the doughnuts to them—making it much more convenient for them in their lives—we’re seeing strong sustained growth,” Charlesworth said.
Last week, the brand began selling doughnuts at roughly 500 McDonald’s restaurants in the New York City area, staying on track to reach about 6,000 locations by the end of 2025. The initiative has also reached Kentucky, Chicago, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The long-term goal is to make Krispy Kreme doughnuts available in more than 12,000 McDonald’s restaurants by the end of 2026.
“The feedback from McDonald’s is very positive,” Charlesworth said. “They tell us it’s working well and we’re working hard with them to maximize the opportunity to make sure that the launch goes well … with local marketing, the team at McDonald’s is able to raise awareness, make sure that people know it’s on the menu, driving very strong demand and no visible cannibalization of all the sales channels.”
However, Charlesworth admitted that demand for doughnuts at McDonald’s has dipped “a little lower than expected.” The CEO attributed the decrease to the burger giant not yet marketing the doughnut partnership nationally.
“Right now, we’re focusing with them on how to make sure awareness is maintained during this local rollout phase while we wait to be nationally distributed,” the CEO explained. “As I said, the feedback from them is very positive and so the partnership continues to progress very well and it continues to unlock for us expansion opportunities across the country. I mentioned Costco, it’s a really big opportunity for us [that would not have been] possible without starting the McDonald’s rollout. Target, which we just started in 2024, following the announcement of McDonald’s, continues to be a big expansion driver in 2025.”
As Krispy Kreme prepares for further expansion with national partners, it’s finding more ways to use existing capacity, according to Charlesworth. That includes increasing productivity at existing hubs or learning how to get doughnuts to retail shops and DFD doors more efficiently. This means Krispy Kreme doesn’t have to spend as much on building new production hubs as it originally thought (five to seven new hubs are expected in 2025, one of which will be in Minneapolis). There are 158 production hubs with spokes in the U.S., up from 149 at the end of 2023 and 133 at the end of 2022.
Fourth quarter results were partially hampered by a cyber attack late last year that interrupted online systems, business operations, materials replenishment, and labor planning. Krispy Kreme estimated the incident impacted revenue by $11 million, with an adjusted EBITDA impact of $10 million. Insurance is expected to offset a portion of these costs and losses. The brand doesn’t believe the cyber attack will hurt its long-term trajectory.
