A doughnut partnership between food and beverage titans is over.
By Andrew Carlo
At the end of March, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts announced that its products were available for purchase at 2,400 McDonald’s locations.
But in its first quarter financial report, released on May 8, Krispy Kreme said it was reassessing the partnership and noted that it did not plan to position its products in any additional McDonald’s locations. At the time, Krispy Kreme said it “continues to believe in the long-term opportunity of profitable growth through the U.S. nationwide expansion including McDonald’s.”
The partnership came to an end this month, however.
Effective July 2, the program officially ended in a joint decision made by both companies who disclosed in June that the partnership was coming to a close.
What torpedoed the union between the food and beverage titans was profitability on Krispy Kreme’s end. Sources close to McDonald’s told Franchise Magazine USA that while some McDonald’s locations were selling out of boxed assortments of Krispy Kreme offerings, other restaurants were stuck with plenty of unsold product at the end of each day.
“Our two companies partnered very closely, each supporting execution, marketing, and training, delivering a great consumer experience in approximately 2,400 McDonald’s restaurants,” said Josh Charlesworth, Krispy Kreme CEO. “Ultimately, efforts to bring our costs in line with unit demand were unsuccessful, making the partnership unsustainable for us.”
Krispy Kreme says it operates in more than 40 countries through a unique network of doughnut shops, partnerships with leading retailers. Altogether, the doughnut maker has more than 17,500 points of access.
“We were excited and pleased to partner with Krispy Kreme,” said Alyssa Buetikofer, McDonald’s USA’s chief marketing and customer experience officer. “We had strong collaboration with Krispy Kreme and they delivered a great, high-quality product for us, and while the partnership met our expectations for McDonald’s and owner/operators, this needed to be a profitable business model for Krispy Kreme as well.”
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Krispy Kreme said it plans to drive future growth through franchise expansion and expanding its retail points of distribution.
For the first quarter of 2025, Krispy Kreme reported that net revenue fell more than 15% to $375.2 million compared to revenue of $442.7 million in the first quarter of 2024. The company also posted a $33.4 million loss for the period.
About 95% of McDonald’s approximate 13,5000 U.S. locations are owned and operated by independent business owners.
