McDonald's Tries Selling Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in Restaurants

Mike Pomranz
·2 min read
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"This small-scale test will help us understand how offering new bakery items like Krispy Kreme could impact operations in our restaurants."

McDonald's
McDonald's

Over the past couple decades, McDonald's has worked to get out of other fast food brand's affairs, selling off chains it had acquired including Chipotle, Boston Market, and Donatos. The burger giant has continued to forge plenty of partnerships, but they've since skewed toward the likes of Travis Scott, Mariah Carey, and Cactus Plant Flea Market.

So McDonald's announcement this week is especially intriguing. It's only a small test in one market, but MickeyD's is letting another chain through the Golden Arches: Starting on October 26, Krispy Kreme doughnuts will be sold at nine McDonald's locations in the Louisville, Kentucky area for a limited time.

Specifically, these locations will offer three varieties of Krispy Kreme doughnuts all day long — Original Glazed Doughnut, Chocolate Iced with Sprinkles Doughnut, and Raspberry Filled Doughnut — both individually or in six-packs, in-restaurant and drive thru only, while supplies last. The doughnuts will be made fresh locally by Krispy Kreme and then delivered to these McDonald's restaurants daily.

"McDonald's is always looking for ways to give our fans more of what they crave, and we often conduct tests to inform future menu decisions," the chains said in a joint announcement. "This small-scale test will help us understand how offering new bakery items like Krispy Kreme could impact operations in our restaurants."

However, Krispy Kreme's press release included its own introduction which may help explain their reasoning for working with America's largest burger chain. "This is our first partnership with McDonald's in the US as we constantly look for new ways to increase access to fresh doughnuts through our delivered fresh daily network — a key element of our omni-channel strategy to attain 50,000 points of access globally."

McDonald's boasts about 13,500 locations in the United States, meaning if Krispy Kreme could sell donuts in all of them, that would cover more than a quarter of their 50,000 points of access goal. Granted, nine McDonald's locations is the smallest of starts, but based on the above, you have to assume the doughnut chain is keeping their fingers crossed that this works out, right?

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