Krispy Kreme opens its first location in Ecuador with an initial investment of $1 million and plans to open 4 more before the end of 2023.

As soon as you enter through the large window, you can see the big machine, and as you approach, you can see several rows of donuts appearing on the production line and finishing their preparation, all in front of customers. This part of the donut making process is one of the attractions that Krispy Kreme will expose to the public at the first location it will open in Ecuador.

The American brand calls these spaces a theater-type space, located in the Moderna Plaza shopping center, km 2.5 via Samborondón, where it will be open to customers from this Thursday, October 26, marking its official arrival in the country.

The Krispy Kreme donut brand is coming to Ecuador, and the first location will open in Samborondón

Ecuador becomes the second country in South America for Krispy Kreme to enter, after Chile, where they have four locations, and they are added to more than 13,000 stores that the brand has around the world.

According to Krispy Kreme’s director of international operations, Miguel Méndez, the brand’s goal is to open stores in three to five countries a year. Apart from Chile, whose stores were opened last April, this year they opened stores in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Switzerland, among others.

Méndez indicated that a study was conducted to reach Ecuador, which included market visits. They started doing it a year and a half or two years ago. “We did studies on how many sweet bread shops (there are in Ecuador), we saw a pretty high amount that let us know that consumers like sweet bread, and then when we started testing the donuts, they served what we thought,” he explained. is Mendez.

The brand’s initial investment in the country is $1 million, and according to Krispy Kreme spokeswoman Dolores Casal, that investment “will grow as more locations are opened within the country.” Four more stores are planned for the rest of 2023, including in Guayaquil at San Marino Shopping, and in 2024 it will also expand to Quito.

“The brand was not present in Ecuador. We opened a theater type location, all Krispy Kreme theater type locations in the world are exactly the same. They have this interior display case that allows customers to see the entire production process of the flagship product, which is the original glazed doughnut,” Casal noted.

With the opening of the first location, which will have extended 24-hour working hours, 150 jobs will be created, says Casal, adding that the number of jobs will also increase with the opening of the other facilities.

Martha Castro, who did not have a job a year and a half ago, is one of the 150 people who have been hired. “This was an excellent opportunity for our professional growth. I applied and the opportunity opened up for me,” said the young woman whose duties will include customer service, cashiering and the beverage area.

The raw material is 50% domestic, but will increase

The raw material for making donuts is 50% domestic, while the other half is imported, but the latter is only at the beginning, says Méndez. “What we want to do is be a global brand with a local heart, we want more local ingredients to attract more local consumers,” he said.

For his part, Casal indicated that the coffee that will be served in the premises is national and made exclusively for the brand, in addition to the fact that the other products also went “through all the external validation processes in order to be accredited”.

Meanwhile, production capacity, according to Méndez, is 2,000 dozen donuts per day, and the projection is to maximize that production line.

He also indicated that one of the characteristics of the brand is that when the inscription Hot Now is included, it means that the donuts are being prepared at that moment and customers can come and consume them at that moment.