McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme have made the mutual decision to end their partnership with one another, which means the 87-year-old donut brand is coming off of McD’s menu.
CNBC reports that the two juggernaut brands aren’t seeing the results that they originally thought were going to come by offering Krispy Kreme doughnuts at more than 2,400 McDonald’s locations, so they’ve decided that it’s best to move on.
They first partnered in March 2024.
McDonald’s Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer, Alyssa Buetikofer, notes how the fast food chain was seeing success from offering Krispy Kreme donuts in their restaurants, but that it “needed to be a profitable business model for Krispy Kreme, as well.”
We aren’t geniuses over here, but it sounds like McDonald’s was selling the goods like planned, but Krispy Kreme isn’t making the profit off of them that they expected to make, thus they’re shutting it down on July 2.
This is a far cry from the original plan, which was to have Krispy Kreme donuts in each and every McDonald’s restaurant nationwide by 2026.
It’s like an unexpected bad breakup, where one of the people in the relationship thought it was going better than the other, until the rude awakening comes that the other actually isn’t reciprocating.
Krispy Kreme’s CEO, Josh Charlesworth, who likely has glaze running through his veins, says: “Ultimately, efforts to bring our costs in line with unit demand were unsuccessful, making the partnership unsustainable for us.”
When you take a look into the Krispy’s financials you see some not-so-great things are happening currently with the 87-year-old brand, as it posted a $33 million loss in the first quarter of 2025 alone.
Krispy Kreme shares have taken a dump as well, to the tune of about 73 percent this year. Only time will tell if this separation from McDonald’s will help stop the bleeding for Krispy Kreme.
