Krispy Kreme picks site for Irish debut
KRISPY Kreme, the American doughnut chain, has selected Blanchardstown Centre in Dublin as the location for its first outlet in Ireland.
It’s been over a year since estate agents for the chain announced it was scouting for locations here.
Headquartered in North Carolina, where it was also founded in 1937, Krispy Kreme was taken private last year in a deal that placed a $1.35bn (€1.14bn) equity valuation on the business.
It was acquired by JAB Holding, an investment vehicle owned by Germany’s billionaire Reimann family. During the summer, JAB sold its 68pc stake in luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo for $1.2bn in order to concentrate on its coffee operations. It also paid $7bn to buy US bakery-café chain Panera Bread.
JAB is now the world’s largest pure-play coffee company by volume. In 2015, it formed a joint venture in Europe called Jacobs Douwe Egberts.
JAB also now owns the UK Krispy Kreme operation, having acquired it from its franchise holder last October.
Krispy Kreme has about 1,200 stores around the world, with about two-thirds of them outside the US. It has about 90 outlets in the UK.
The UK Kripsy Kreme operation posted a pre-tax profit of £10.3m (€11.4m) in the 11 months to the beginning of January this year, on revenue of £66.6m (€74.1m).