Krispy Kreme

Vernon Rudolph bought a doughnut shop in 1933 from Joe LeBeau. Rudolph’s purchased included the rights to the Krispy Kreme name, the secrete doughnut recipe, and all company assets. Rudolph moved the doughnut shop from Paducah, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee looking for larger markets when his family joined the operations and opened other shops in West Virginia, and Georgia. The doughnut shops produced, marketed, and delivered fresh doughnuts to local grocery stores. Rudolph became dissatisfied with the slow growing business conditions, so he closed up all shops and moved to N. Carolina and opened the first Krispy Kreme. At this time they still delivered doughnuts to local stores but not directly to customers. The people of Salem, N. Carolina love Krispy Kreme doughnuts so much that they started stopping by to purchase doughnuts. With so many requests Rudolph built a dirve through window for retail customers. By the late 1950’s Krispy Kreme was located in 12 states with ab...