Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.
Donut Madness
By Mikee dela Cruz

Lee Roy Anthony Sarmiento, who is in his 30s, joined the queue in front of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.’s (KK) newest outlet – along Ayala Avenue in Makati City – at 6:00 P.M. the day before the store’s actual opening.  There was the lure for the firsts to enter the store the next day to receive from a month-long to a year-long daily supply of KK donuts to warrant the queuing, of course, but Sarmiento says it was more than that for him.  “When (naming an international donut company competitor of KK) opened in the Philippines, I, for one, knew it was just a (KK) copycat.  I wanted to have the real deal,” he says.

And that, for most, is the very appeal of KK – the offering of donut as it should be.

DONUT LEGACY

KK, a chain of doughnut stores with its parent company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the US, was founded by Vernon Rudolph in 1937 in a rented building on South Main Street in Winston-Salem in what is now called historic Old Salem.  Legend has it that when he started selling KK donuts (the recipe purchased by his uncle Ishmael Armstrong from one Joseph LeBouf of Lake Charles in Los Angeles), Rudolph delivered the goods on his bicycle.  But by the 1960s, however, KK already gained popularity, so that it began expanding to other areas in the US.

In 2001, after the 1980 buy-out of the corporation by a group of franchisees from Beatrice Foods that bought the company in the 1970s, KK was already a global brand, with franchises opening in, among others, Canada, the UK, Australia, Kuwait, Mexico, South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.  

According to Jim Fuentebella, president of The Real American Doughnut Factory in the Philippines, the country “was not in the radar” of the American KK franchisors until “they came in (and saw the market status, and then) they were bullish about us,” he says.  With investments reaching P30 million (“We didn’t want to cut corners – we wanted to replicate the store experience overseas here in the Philippines,” Fuentebella says), KK made a splash when it entered the Philippine donut market in 2007, with the first outlet opened in Taguig City.  The bullishness proved well-placed, too, since by the end of 2007, KK already had five branches, and four to five more branches are expected to be opened before end-2008, says Fuentebella.

GOOD FOOD

“There aren’t a lot of donut players in the (Philippines), so we can be (a major)player here,” Fuentebella says.  But just because there aren’t that many players doesn’t mean “we (do not pay as much attention to what we offer).  The success of our brand is in the quality of the donuts we make, and in the people behind our products.”

KK, of course, sells the world-famous Original Glazed Doughnut, though varieties also include the Glazed Raspberry Filled, Chocolate Iced Filled Custard, Dulce de Leche, New York Cheesecake, Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate, and Caramel Kreme Crunch.  Paired with Signature Coffee choices Mild and Mellow (soft and sweet, with delicate flavor from start to finish) or Full Flavored (decaffeinated coffee); or Chillers varieties Chocolate Chocolate, Orange You Glad, or Very Berry, KK’s offerings are “sure to satisfy,” Fuentebella says.  “We make money the old-fashioned way – by offering good food.”

A source of pride, and what every Filipino should try at least once, is the Hershey’s Cookies and Kreme Doughnut – developed by Filipinos, and then picked up by the American franchisors for international release, “proving that we’re good at what we do,” Fuentebella says.

It is also because of this goodness that Fuentebella believes they can make KK an international brand run by Filipinos in the Philippines.