The famous Krispy Kreme doughnut chain was founded in North Carolina on this historic day, July 13, 1937.
Company founder Vernon Rudolph “purchased a secret recipe for yeast-risen doughnuts from a French chef in New Orleans,” Krispy Kreme's website said.
Rudolph set up a doughnut factory in present-day Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and began selling doughnuts to area grocery stores, the chain's website says.
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“The delicious aromas of baking doughnuts filled the streets and passersby stopped to ask if they could buy warm doughnuts,” the website states.
Rudolph created the first Krispy Kreme store by cutting a hole in the wall of his building, allowing people to purchase a glazed doughnut right on the sidewalk.
The Krispy Kreme doughnut chain was founded in North Carolina on July 13, 1937. The company now has operations in more than 30 countries. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Since then, “Krispy Kreme has become one of the world’s most beloved and well-known candy brands,” its website states.
“Our iconic Original Glazed® donut is universally recognized for its fresh-from-the-oven flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture,” they said.
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Far from its beginnings as a true hole-in-the-wall in North Carolina, the company now has operations in more than 30 countries, its website says.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Krispy Kreme expanded into North and South Carolina and further developed its doughnut-making processes.
While each store used the same recipe, the made-from-scratch doughnuts meant there were inconsistencies between locations.
The chain is most famous for its “Original Glazed” doughnut, seen here. (Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The solution to this problem? Automation.
“Krispy Kreme built a mixing plant and developed a distribution system that delivered the perfect dry doughnut mix to every Krispy Kreme store,” the company's website said.
“Rudolph and his equipment engineers then invented and built the equipment to make Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Beginning in the 1950s, they focused on improving and automating the doughnut-making process.”
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The company was sold to Beatrice Foods Company in 1976, three years after Rudolph's death.
In a somewhat unusual move, the company was repurchased from Beatrice Foods in 1982 by “a small group of our early franchisees,” the company said.
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“A renewed focus on the hot doughnut experience became a priority for the company,” he also said, along with expansion outside its roots in the southeastern United States.
Krispy Kreme’s flagship store is located in New York City. The 4,500-square-foot doughnut shop includes a frosting waterfall, a 24-hour curbside pickup window, and a system that can make more than 4,500 doughnuts per hour. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Krispy Kreme opened its first store in New York City in 1996.
The city is now home to Krispy Kreme's flagship store, which sells a signature “Big Apple Doughnut” with apple cream filling.
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Expansion continued, with its first store opening in California in 1999, and the company went public with an IPO in April 2000, according to its website.
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Krispy Kreme's first international store opened in December 2001 in Ontario, Canada, according to its website.
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In 2003, Krispy Kreme opened locations in Sydney, Australia, and London, England, its first locations outside North America.
