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A selection of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (Diedra Laird/Charlotte Observer/TNS)
A selection of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (Diedra Laird/Charlotte Observer/TNS)
“Oh yes they do have strawberry, Mom! Look!” a little boy says, screaming while he runs up to the Krispy Kreme doughnut glass, rubbing his hands and face against it.
This five-year-old boy joins many of the young faces smiling at the glaze of their doughnuts on an early Saturday morning. A few are pressing against the windows in front of the stainless steel doughnut maker, watching the hundreds of doughnuts, glazes and fillings rotate through the heater, fryer, glazer and cooler contraptions.
The smell of fried dough floats through the air as the doughnut makes its way through the conveyor belt before finishing with icing at the very end. Once iced, the smell of the finished dough and sweet icing in all different colors engulfs the entire restaurant. The kids, who were watching the doughnut travel through the machine, race to the display case in their white Krispy Kreme paper hats, pointing and giggling at all the doughnuts being loaded into the case that they can choose from.
From the moment Krispy Kreme opens, the store has the ability to make more than a couple thousand donuts to get the day started.
“We have the capacity to make 270 dozen [doughnut] per hour if we need to,” says Detron McWilliams, the Greenville Krispy Kreme manager. “But those needs are dependent upon the orders we have and if we need a large quantity.”
Since Krispy Kreme was founded in 1937, Vernon Rudolph opened 1,004 Krispy Kreme locations worldwide. Besides the United States, Krispy Kreme operates in 28 other countries with current construction plans already underway in another 24 additional countries.
In order to run those locations, the national headquarters, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has employed 4,300 workers according to the Krispy Kreme Corporate Fact Sheet.
The Making of the Doughnut
Depending on customer activity, the Greenville Krispy Kreme typically employs six workers per shift. The most important position is the doughnut maker who starts and ends the doughnut process from beginning to end.
First the doughnut maker starts by weighing out the dough, yeast and mixing them together with water. All of the ingredients must mix for 14 minutes with 10 minutes of “floor time.” Floor time is referred to as the amount of sitting time after the doughnut is shaped and made.
After the floor-time process, the doughnut is put through the proof box, which is a 34-minute process. Finally, the doughnut is put in the fryer for 110 seconds and is left to cool down just enough for the customers to enjoy it. Altogether, from the beginning to the end, the process takes about an hour for each tray of doughnuts.
One of McWilliams’ most trusted employees and doughnut maker, LaMont Ebrom, arrives at work a little before 3 a.m. to swipe his clock-in card to get the doughnut production started for the day. Working Tuesday through Friday, Ebrom comes in to make the fresh dough that will eventually be cut and crafted to enter the first stage of doughnut making.
“I’m a production specialist. One of my most important jobs, besides making the doughnuts, is making sure that after 12 hours I find the old ones, throw them away and put in new ones,” Ebrom says.
According to Ebrom, he takes early shifts during the weekdays so he can have a work-life balance. Ebrom says he enjoys coming into work for the early shift because he knows he’s the one responsible for putting smiles on hungry customers’ faces.
“People are steady coming down the line and we have to make them [the doughnuts] hot and fresh,” Ebrom says. “We got a good staff and good managers and we try to make sure everything is done in a respectful way so we can communicate and be respectful to the customers.”
One of a Kind Dough
One early morning customer, Timothy Sciannella, is enjoying Ebrom’s fresh-cut doughnuts more than the average customer who comes in for a doughnut or two and coffee.
“I ordered a dozen glazed doughnuts all for myself,” Sciannella says. “I don’t get to go too often because I’m a broke college student, but Krispy Kreme is still my favorite eatery.”
Sciannella attends Geneva College in Pennsylvania and plays as a second baseman for the college’s baseball team. On a visit to Greenville to see a friend before finishing his journey to Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, he has a meeting with its baseball coaches about transferring to play baseball there.
“I like Krispy Kreme because they make their doughnuts fresh right in front of you, but other places like Dunkin Donuts, [the dough] is all frozen and more processed,” Sciannella says. “Pennsylvania doesn’t have these (Krispy Kreme’s) anymore, but I would recommend it because it’s just an experience every human being has to go through.”
R.J. Baietti, a Clinical Associate for Monmouth University and a 2017 graduate of East Carolina University, is in the same league as Sciannella as he also orders his Krispy Kremes by the dozen.
Baietti joins the customer craze of the most commonly purchased doughnuts: the original glazed and the glazed with chocolate icing. Both McWilliams and Ebrom agree that these two doughnuts are the most popular flavors, followed by the Krispy Kreme’s seasonal specials.
“I get a dozen glazed doughnuts, half with chocolate, if I want a quick snack or I want to get some food for a decently inexpensive price,” Baietti says.
According to McWilliams, the seasonal specials are one of the best ways to bring in a little extra revenue to the Greenville store, as well as Krispy Kreme nationwide. Since these doughnuts are only offered during specific times of the year for short periods of time, customers interested in the product are drawn in and often come multiple times in a short span before the special runs out.
Thankfully, the machine has some self-cleaning compartments that cycles unrecognizable objects out of the machine. Other compartments are sprayed down with a hose and scrubbed after the “hot” doughnut morning and evening hours, along with the glass windows separating the machine from the rest of the restaurant and the cases behind the machine that were home to the morning’s doughnut ingredients.
Mondays are the exception where there is a deep-cleaning period in the middle of the workday when the customer demand is the lowest and there are enough pre-made doughnuts from the morning in order to last until the machine finishes its cleansing process.
“On Monday’s we completely drain it through a boiling process that takes about five hours,” McWilliams says.
Consistent cleaning helps Krispy Kreme create steady revenue for the company. Without the cleaning processes installed to the doughnut machine, allowing each restaurant to produce more available products, the company’s revenue would struggle to increase each year. Over the past three years, with more specials added to Krispy Kreme’s plans, the business has seen its revenue increase during the time span. In 2014, Krispy Kreme brought in 460.331 million, following with 490.334 million in 2015 and delivering 518.714 million in 2016.
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