Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s are taking their partnership nationwide.

The two companies will begin a phased market rollout during the latter part of this year and finish by the end of 2026. The expansion comes after McDonald’s tested selling fresh doughnuts in 160 restaurants across Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky. These pilot stores will continue offering Krispy Kreme products during the nationwide launch.

Three Krispy Kreme doughnuts will be offered inside locations each day—Original Glazed, Chocolate Iced with Sprinkles, and Chocolate Iced Kreme Filled. Customers can order them individually or in boxes of six all day while supplies last.

“Since the launch of breakfast nearly 50 years ago, we’ve continued to offer new menu items, flavors and experiences that have made McDonald’s an irreplaceable part of fans’ morning routines,” Tariq Hassan, McDonald’s USA’s chief marketing and customer experience officer, said in a statement. “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. Our fans’ love for Krispy Kreme runs deep, and we can’t wait to make it even easier for them to satisfy their sweet tooth at McDonald’s restaurants across the country.”

The agreement between Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s is a result of the doughnut chain’s new operating model, which focuses on using production hubs to deliver fresh doughnuts every day to thousands of locations instead of focusing on the growth of retail shops. McDonald’s is what Krispy Kreme calls a delivered fresh daily door (DFD). These are grocers, gas stations, convenience stores, pharmacies, and restaurants that receive the chain’s freshly made doughnuts. There were 6,808 DFD doors in the U.S. at the end of 2023, up from 5,729 the year prior. Krispy Kreme views these locations as its core driver of growth.

For perspective, McDonald’s had 13,457 U.S. locations at the end of last year and announced plans to add 900 U.S. stores by 2027. CEO Josh Charlesworth said in February that Krispy Kreme’s existing network could cover about 6,000 restaurants, so the doughnut chain will have to ramp up significantly in the coming years.

To further boost its overall DFD door business—including the phased rollout with McDonald’s—Krispy Kreme has been scaling its supply chain, building a support team, adding technology and new equipment, and enhancing field training. The brand said it secured sites in Miami, Minnesota, and Los Angeles, and all of them were second-generation opportunities so that the brand could speed up opening times. Additionally, underutilized retail doughnut shops are making more than twice the amount they used to.

“The partnership accelerates the development of our existing Delivered Fresh Daily channel, creating operating leverage through distribution density and production utilization,” Charlesworth said in a statement.

Charlesworth told investors last year that during the pilot, Krispy Kreme learned how to deliver over longer distances while maintaining quality and service standards. The company adjusted operating hours, doughnut processing and packing layouts, and delivery windows, which allowed them to get more production out of existing hubs “than we even thought was possible before,” he said.

The company also noted that it added delivery trucks and doubled production in hubs to satisfy demand from McDonald’s. While grocery stores often require early morning drop-offs, the burger restaurants can facilitate other times of day. Sometimes Krispy Kreme delivered product to each store and other times it used a third-party logistics team to complete the delivery.

There haven’t been concerns about cannibalization with other Krispy Kreme retail shops since customers are typically going to McDonald’s for other reasons.

“The way we’re thinking about it is let’s just make it more convenient,” Charlesworth said in May 2023. “Get those awesome fresh doughnuts to people where they want to pick them up. And we’re just learning as we go. The demand is there in multiple locations.”