Krispy Kreme
American global doughnut company and coffeehouse chain
Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans chef, rented a building in 1937 in what is now historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and began selling to local grocery stores. Steady growth preceded an ambitious expansion as a public company in the period 2000 to 2016, which ultimately proved unprofitable. In 2016, the company returned to private ownership under JAB Holding Company, a private Luxembourg-based firm. In July 2021, Krispy Kreme became publicly traded again on the Nasdaq. The brand name is a deliberate non-standard spelling of "crispy cream", for marketing effect.
History
Early years
In 1933, eighteen-year-old Vernon Rudolph, along with his brother Lewis Rudolph, began working for his uncle, Ishmael Armstrong, who owned a small general store in Paducah, Kentucky, that sold a wide variety of goods, including its very popular doughnuts. While the exact origin of the doughnut recipe remains partially a mystery, it is believed that Ishmael Armstrong was inspired by an Ohio River barge cook named Joseph LeBeouf who was famous for his light and fluffy doughnuts, which contained potatoes.
The store struggled during the Great Depression.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1192805. VIAF identifies the subject as 155088143. The Library of Congress control number is no98079783. 2 of 8 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1915, 1973, 1937 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Krispy Kreme” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.