Krispy Kreme Case Study

Austin Kemp

1/17/17

GEB 3376

Professor Moradian

Krispy Kreme

3-17) The company has been sold several times.  The original sale of the company was in 1935.  It was sold by Ishmael Armstrong to Vernon Rudolph’s father, Plumie.  Vernon then passed away and in 1976 was sold to Beatrice Foods of Chicago.  Then in 1982 Joseph A McAleer Sr. bought Krispy Kreme from Beatrice Foods.  Finally, in 2000 Krispy Kreme joined the NASDAQ and in 2001 the NYSE.

3-18) Beatrice Foods was a major company and their goal in acquiring Krispy Kreme was purely to make profit, whereas Krispy Kreme at the time was a family run business.  One issue Beatrice Foods started was the redesigning of the Krispy Kreme logo.  Another mistake they made was trying to add other food options to the menu such as soups, sandwiches, and biscuits.  Finally, the worst problem they cause was altering the original recipe to the donuts to try and reduce and cut costs for more profits.

3-19) One of the main reasons for buying back Krispy Kreme rather than starting a new company was simply that Krispy Kreme was already a known company and had loyal customers.  Since they already had customers it would be easier to build Krispy Kreme back up to a successful business then starting from scratch.  

3-20) One business model that stood out to me was the way Beatrice Food, after almost driving the company into the ground, was bought out and successfully revived and is now a thriving and well known donut company.

3-21) Since Krispy Kreme started as a family business I feel there was less influence from major corporations that only care about money rather than the customers and the satisfaction of them.  By being a family run business there was care taken in every sense and probably in the beginning the management knew the usual customers and it had a very family like atmosphere to the shop.

3-22) Questions I would ask Ishmael Armstrong are.

Why do you want to sell Krispy Kreme?

What were your numbers last year?