Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme was founded on July 13, 1937, when Vernon Rudolph rented a building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and began selling yeast-raised glazed doughnuts using a secret recipe purchased from a New Orleans chef — eventually cutting a hole in the bakery wall to sell directly to passersby craving hot doughnuts. The company expanded across the Southeast through the 1940s and 1950s, pioneering standardized doughnut-making machinery to ensure consistent quality across locations. Today Krispy Kreme operates thousands of locations worldwide and is globally recognized for its signature Original Glazed doughnut, with its corporate archives held at the Smithsonian Institution.