Imagine you are a Krispy Kreme executive, tasked with working out how to sell more than the $1.7 billion worth of doughnuts that your company shipped last year, and maintain the decade-plus streak in revenue growth. New flavors, more stores, and marketing might help, but your dream partnership would involve getting the product in front of millions of already-hungry people ready to treat themselves.
That dream became a reality this week, after McDonald’s announced plans to sell Krispy Kreme’s famous glazed rings at all of the burger chain’s ~13,500 US locations by the end of 2026, supersizing their existing partnership and sending DNUT shares up a stunning 39% on the news. The deal follows other recent savory/sweet fast food collabs like Wendy’s/Cinnabon and Subway/Auntie Anne’s.
Double glazed
The rollout will require the doughnut-maker’s distribution to more than double to satisfy demand — and, in addition to reaching millions more sweet-toothed customers, the company intends to build on the ~6,800 third-party stores (like gas stations and grocery stores) that it already serves across America. Both are perfect examples of the chain’s “hub and spoke” model, which uses nucleated production sites (hubs) to make doughnuts that are delivered to nearby locations (spokes).
Down the hole: Krispy Kreme may be on a sugar-induced high now, but its shares have actually lagged over the past year, in part due to fears that the popularity of weight loss drugs like Ozempic may reduce the nation’s appetite.
More Business
See all Business
The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain
Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.
By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.
What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.
While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.
By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.
What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.
While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.
