As more stores get set to open, beverages, marketing could be new keys to success.
To go for the glazed or the old-fashioned. The jelly-filled or the one loaded with cream. One or a dozen. These are the decisions that more Western Pennsylvanians may face over the next few years as the nation’s largest doughnut makers turn up the ovens on expansion into the market.
A new franchise group representing New England’s Dunkin’ Donuts is set to sell its first chocolate frosted out of a Market Square shop later this month, the first of 105 new stores planned for 16 counties in the region within eight years. Meanwhile, the franchisee that brought Southern creation Krispy Kreme to the market is plotting a comeback after being forced to retrench.
Surprisingly, the success of either chain here probably won’t come down to its doughnuts. Instead, the bottom line will be about strategy — choosing store locations and store sizes, adding menu items such as breakfast sandwiches or ice cream and winning customers over with their coffee.
“The industry right now, per se, is not advertising doughnuts,” in the opinion of James Morton, chief operating officer and general manager of the Donut Connection chain, a cooperative buying and marketing group linking more than 180 small shops across 15 states.
Photo: Steve Mellon / Post-Gazette.
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