The Future of Krispy Kreme May Depend on More Than Doughnuts

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Crispy Cream is looking to reinvent itself as more than just a doughnut chain, expanding into grocery, retail, and global markets. As the company reports its latest earnings, investors are watching closely for signs that its turnaround strategy is gaining momentum.

[00:00:15]And now to tell us all about it is Josh Charles, CEO of Crispy Cream. Thank you so much for being here, Josh.

[00:00:22]>> Thank you for having me.

[00:00:23]>> Yeah, we're so excited to dig into this and see where everything is standing right now at Crispy Cream. You're reporting first quarter earnings now. So what are these results telling you about the progress of this latest turnaround strategy that you guys launched last August?

[00:00:36]>> Yeah, the results in Q1 uh have shown again that we carry forward the momentum that we had in Q4 with the turnaround into 2026 which we're really pleased to see and it shows significant progress on the turnaround. The turnaround is designed to bring sustainable profitable growth to Krispy Crane and to strengthen our balance sheet. And we saw plenty of proof points from that in the in the first quarter.

[00:01:02]>> Well, that's great to hear that those turnarounds uh strategies that you're working on have been working. When it comes to all of those different strategies that you've been employing, tell us a little bit about the fresh delivery partnerships. How important are those partnerships with major retailers driving growth right now?

[00:01:18]>> They're very important. Um, Crispy Cream has been expanding for a number of years now in the US and around the world, but the French delivery channel has really enabled us to get those fresh donuts to to people more conveniently. Um, and so it's been an important part of our growth journey. However, in 2025, we decided as part of our turnaround, we wanted to make sure those sales were all profitable and we had sustainable revenues for for the long term. So we actually chose to exit from some underperforming doors last year. Um but now we're seeing uh in fourth quarter last year and the first quarter this year that those partners were able to add distribution with them. Um particularly the likes of Walmart, Target, Costco, Sam's Club and the grocery stores where the conditions are right not just for growth and making the donuts more available but for sustainable profitable growth which is what we're able to talk about today.

[00:02:14]Yeah, it's interesting to look at those big box stores and how they can help you with those strategies. In terms of consumer behavior, what are you seeing right now with trends with GLP-1 weight loss drugs potentially impacting food choices and a lot of those health and wellness trends that a lot of people are looking at these days?

[00:02:32]>> Well, when when you think about Krispy Crane, it's important to understand that we are well positioned in this environment. And and the reason is because most of the people who buy our donuts are buying them for for sharing occasions even as a gift. Um and as a result, you know, they're only purchasing them maybe two to three times a year. So what's really important is that we really break through that we really have relevant uh occasions to get people excited about. So we did well for example earlier this year at Valentine's record results there, St. Patrick's Day.

[00:03:05]So seasonal occasions where people can enjoy and share the donuts but also we teamed up with NASA and came up with an artis donut for the mission there so that people you know these moments of cultural buzz can get excited. What we find is because of love, we can get uh people excited about those donuts on those occasions and and so that means what we're really focused on is just making sure we have awesome fresh donuts that people can enjoy um uh and taste great uh every time they do.

[00:03:35]>> Yeah, that sharing aspect is really interesting and how a lot of that does come around those holidays. You also mentioned the NASA partnership. So tell us a little bit more about these partnerships and why those are so important for the brand moving forward.

[00:03:49]>> Well, you know, because it's an infrequent purchase, we want people to think of us and um sometimes we want high visibility at the grocery store. Uh sometimes we want them to also come to our donut shop. And so we leverage our big social media uh platform that we have. We have more than 17 million loyalty members to get people excited about the brand and have them come to us. And this is a great example where we work with NASA to understand uh when they were going to go up with Artemis 2 and we knew that people would be looking for somebody to celebrate with uh at those launch parties and the like. Uh and we were able to provide that uh to them. In fact, we only planned to do it for the launch and due to high demand, we ended up uh extending the the the LTO to to to the whole mission because, you know, people found that once again crispy crane was a way to celebrate a special moment in their lives.

[00:04:43]>> Yeah, that's such an important part of everything is to bring people together with the product, especially when maybe individual sales on a daily basis with customers are not what you're focusing on as much as these kind of group sharing experiences. And that seems to be a trend around the world, not just here in the US. You've talked a lot about your global expansion. So, tell us a little bit more about these opportunities you're seeing outside of the US.

[00:05:06]>> Yeah, actually, would you believe it? We sell as many donuts overseas now as we do in the US. We're in more than 40 countries, and it's it's across the whole world. Um, what we found is that sometimes we do this with uh through company-owned operations, but actually increasingly we're focused on franchise operations, partners who can uh build doughut shops, expand distribution, and make our the same amazing uh awesome fresh donuts that we love here in America in America available in those other in those other countries. And so we've been working with franchises to expand into new markets. Uh uh we just announced earlier this year we're going to open up in the Netherlands. Um we opened up in Brazil last year and just yesterday opened up a new theater in Sa Paulo. So constantly adding distribution uh with these franchise partners around the world which is really exciting.

[00:06:01]>> Yeah, congratulations on those new partnerships. That is exciting thinking about the expansion around the world.

[00:06:06]You've talked about becoming an omni channel brand. So what does that look like in practice for customers?

[00:06:12]Well, actually one of our fastest growing channels is is the digital channel. That's people ordering donuts generally from our doughut shops uh not just through third party aggregators but our own uh online platforms uh web app.

[00:06:25]They actually have increased to 23% of our retail sales now. So a really great example of how uh we can get those donuts to people more conveniently. uh and those specialty collections that we were talking about earlier, they seem to do so well in that digital channel because people have heard about them perhaps online um and and and they want to be able to get to them quickly and and so whether it's through fresh delivery, whether it's at our donut shops, the drive-thru, or these digital channels, we find that people are looking for fresh donuts more conveniently all the time.

[00:06:58]>> Yeah. And being able to provide that service for customers, I'm sure you're seeing a bump in that area. You're also talking a lot about expanding with grocery stores, gas stations, other locations like that. How do you balance those expansions while also preserving this iconic original glazed experience that people might get from some of your flagship stores?

[00:07:18]>> Yeah, quality and and fresh donuts is top of mind for us all the time. We want them to taste great and live up to the expectation that the brand creates. to actually make the donuts mostly in local doughnut shops and then distribute them locally to those grocery stores. So which ensures that uh we have uh uh great donuts all the time. We now work indeed with third party logistics partners who are specialists at transporting the donuts and getting them there uh as efficiently and effectively as possible uh so that we can focus on that those handcrafted donuts uh that our crispy creamers are dedicated to making uh every day and and uh and really it's we therefore you know we we do grow with with um partners like Walmart and and Target and others uh and we will grow with them because They understand how important it is to make sure that they're fresh donuts uh and they meet meet the uh expectations of our customers.

[00:08:16]>> Yeah, that mix is so interesting of the big box stores as well as this local retail distribution, online ordering, all of these different avenues that you're getting the donuts to customers.

[00:08:26]Looking ahead, what does success look like for Crispy Cream over the next year, the next two years? Where do you plan to go with everything? Well, look, today we we outlined an outlook that sees us move to a more sustainable, profitable set of revenue and a stronger balance sheet. We really think that Crispy Cream uh deserves uh the financial strength to go with the great brand. So, the turnaround plan is really being focused on that. Underpinning it as well is moving towards a more franchise model, reffranchising our international markets. We recently re-franchised in the western states as well and that sets us up uh we believe for long-term growth but more capital-like growth. So sustainable profitable growth um but where we can work with others to open up these shops uh around the world. be targeting um more than a hundred uh new doughnut shops this year, but they'll mostly be with those franchise partners uh to make sure that uh not only do we bring the brand to more people, but we do it in a sustainable, profitable way for the business and and one that underpins a strong financial future for the company.

[00:09:36]>> Wow. Well, we'll definitely have to keep our eye on all of these upcoming changes with Crispy Cream. Finally, I have to ask you, what is your favorite order at Crispy Cream? classic glazed. What's your favorite?

[00:09:47]>> Well, I'll tell you what I'm excited about at the moment is these minis for mom uh which just coming out this week because uh this is a classic example for me of how we can not just bring bring great tasting donuts with great variety.

[00:10:00]I love these um but I got to admit it's the original glaze. This is a mini version, but it's the original glaze that I order the most. So, I hope that's your favorite as well.

[00:10:10]>> I mean, they're all great, but you can't get anything really better than that original glaze. Just so perfect. Hot, fresh, crispy. Thank you so much, Josh Charlesworth, chief executive off officer at Crispy Cream. We really appreciate you being here.