CHARLOTTE, NC. — In the last six years, Krispy Kreme, Inc. has opened 400 donut producing facilities in 31 countries to deliver fresh donuts to 12,000 locations. Michael J. Tattersfield, president and chief executive officer of Krispy Kreme, said the biggest challenge when it comes to working with other business to sell its products is “access.”
“If you only have 400 producing donut shops and trying to get to customers, it’s about getting access to them, so this logistics program, primarily in grocery and convenience shops, when you really take the flow of the 400 producing shops and get to customers where they are,” Mr. Tattersfield told Jon Fortt during an April 14 appearance on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “That’s been the biggest transformation of the model, and it’s really, when you think about it, we’re a dozens business. We really maximize the gifting and opportunities there, and it really does help when we bring in world class merchant ideas … and just really keep the business very vibrant.”
Mr. Tattersfield went on to explain that Krispy Kreme is comfortable with changing consumer habits since it spent the last six or seven years transforming this model. He also said the company built 10 to 20 theater production shops called hubs, which start production on “Day 1.”
“Really this omnichannel model is what we’ve been shifting the business to,” Mr. Tattersfield said. “And it’s really about getting fresh donuts as a donut company to where customers are.”
Mr. Tattersfield also discussed the expansion of Krispy Kreme’s ongoing partnership with McDonald’s.
“Our goal is to get to about 75,000 points of access over a long term,” Mr. Tattersfield told co-anchor Morgan Brennan. “And when we think about the channels that we first went after, whether it’s the grocery channel or the convenience channel, we need to really be an expert at that first so we can deliver fresh on time to their demand and the size and the pack. McDonald’s and the restaurant is an opportunity we saw, but it still has to work with exactly the same model of how we do our delivered fresh daily program. So, can we deliver on time? Can we deliver the fresh product? Can we deliver the pack size they want? And then how does that work in a restaurant throughout the day? And it’s got to still fit exactly what we do whether we’re serving Wal-Mart or Target on the route."