Krispy Kreme announced on Tuesday that the company would be ending its partnership with McDonald’s on July 2nd. The two fast food chains were partnered for just a year. The Doughnut franchise reported that demand for its donuts at McDonald’s was not enough to generate sufficient profit and recoup its costs.
The companies partnered in 2024 to offer consumers three types of Krispy Kreme donuts, including Original Glazed Doughnuts, Chocolate Iced with Sprinkles Doughnuts, and Chocolate Iced Kreme Killer Doughnuts. The products were available at an estimated 2,400 of 14,000 US McDonald’s locations across the US.
Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth stated in a joint news release with McDonald’s, “Our two companies partnered very closely, each supporting execution, marketing, and training, delivering a great consumer experience, ultimately, efforts to bring our costs in line with unit demand were unsuccessful, making the partnership unsustainable for us.”
McDonald’s USA’s chief marketing officer, Alyssa Buetikofer echoed this sentiment, explaining, “We had strong collaboration with Krispy Kreme and they delivered a great, high-quality product for us, and while the partnership met our expectations for McDonald’s and owner/operators, this needed to be a profitable business model for Krispy Kreme as well.”
The original aim of the partnership was to work towards offering nationwide availability of Krispy Kreme products at participating McDonald’s locations by the end of 2026. Though this goal has been thwarted, the companies have set their sights on achieving other objectives.
Both companies have suffered losses in the past fiscal years. As the corporations reconsider, Krispy Kreme plans to prioritize expanding availability of its doughnuts through US expansion of its retail stores and capital-light international development. On the other hand, McDonald’s plans to build on the widespread success of its breakfast business.
