US doughnut maker and retailer Krispy Kreme Doughnuts opens its first UK store today [Friday].
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The store, which is also the company’s first European outlet, is situated in the food hall of upmarket London department store Harrods. The outlet, which features the company’s traditional doughnut-making “theatre”, enabling consumers to watch the products being made, also has its own street access.
Krispy Kreme, which operates outlets in the US, Canada and Australia, plans to open a further 24 stores in the UK and Ireland over the next five years.
But while Don Henshall, chief executive of Krispy Kreme UK, hopes the new stores will increase the popularity of the doughnut in the UK, health watchdogs and nutritionists are not so keen on the arrival of the doughnut maker.
“We don’t need another company like Krispy Kreme pushing doughnuts at us. Changing our diets is key to tackling the problem of obesity but the availability of these foods just keeps increasing. We need the food industry to work with us and stop pushing the stuff we know is unhealthy,” Neville Rigby, director of policy and public affairs at the International Obesity TaskForce, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying.
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By GlobalDataKrispy Kreme UK is 34% owned by its US parent, while 66% is held by Henshall and a consortium called Cheshire & Kent, the Financial Times reported.
