How Krispy Kreme Started

In 1933, 18-year-old Vernon Rudolph and his uncle bought a secret doughnut recipe from a New Orlean's French chef. Two years later, Rudolph and his uncle opened up a doughnut store in Nashville, Tennessee where they would provide doughnuts wholesale to grocery stores. But in 1937, Rudolph wanted his own shop, so he moved from Nashville with two employees and opened a new shop in Winston Sale, North Carolina.Together, they all drove there in a 1936 Pontiac, and when they arrived, they only had $25 cash, a couple of doughnut-making machines, the secret recipe and the name “Krispy Kreme Doughnuts”. They used the $25 to rent a building across from the Salem Academy and College and then Rudolph stroke a deal where the grocer would supply him with free ingredients, as long as he made payments after the first doughnuts were sold. Finally, Rudolph had his operations running and he began selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts to the local grocery stores. He even converted the back of his Pontiac into a doughnut delivery truck. But as Rudolph made the doughnuts in the storefront, the scent of cooking doughnuts drifted in the streets and people kept coming up to him asking: “Can I buy a doughnut?”. So Rudolph takes advantage of this opportunity, cut a hole in the side of the wall and began selling hot doughnuts to costumer who were passing by. At that point Krispy Kreme really started to catch on and started to expand across the nation. But as they grew Rudolph complained that the doughnuts weren’t consistent from store front to storefront. So Rudolph built a mix plant and developed a whole distribution system that would ensure that each Krispy Kreme’s doughnut location gets the perfect dry mix for all the doughnuts, to keep the recipe consistent. Their automation and perfect size hot doughnuts have let to a doughnut empire today, with over a thousand and three locations in 24 different countries. And that’s how Krispy Kreme was founded. Thank you for watching my video. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe to me on YouTube and follow me on Instagram @austindanielpatry.