Krispy Kreme Canada, building on the success of its Factory Theatre Hub launched earlier this year in Calgary, is now looking for opportunities to expand its presence in the market with cafe locations which would serve as satellite stores across the city, particularly in geographies that are farther away from its hub.
And the brand is looking to launch its donuts in Costco in 2026 in the market.
Levi Hetrick, CFO and Head of Growth for Krispy Kreme Canada, said the brand has been very well received since opening its location in the south part of Calgary.
Across Canada, there are 23 locations with the most recent opening at the Eaton Centre in Montreal.
“We have two formats with Krispy Kreme in Canada. There’s the theatre hub, and then the cafe. And the theatre hub is where all the donuts for the market are made every single day. That’s where we make everything from scratch, and you can watch the donuts coming down the conveyor and all that. It’s sort of a fun experience,” explained Hetrick.
“Then we have the cafes. And a cafe is just another convenient outlet where we ship the donuts there twice a day. These are currently mostly in Toronto and Montreal. And then we’re opening our first one in Vancouver later this year. These are anywhere from really small like 400 square feet without seating up to call it maybe 1,500, 1,600 square feet with seats, but with the full donut lineup, coffee, frozen beverages.”
Hetrick said the company’s history of cafes have been urban in pedestrian-heavy locations.
“Calgary is a little different because it’s not quite such a pedestrian-oriented city. So when we’re thinking about cafes and Calgary, we’re thinking about maybe a couple of in-line spaces, but more drive-thru type cafes. The way that we’re looking for the real estate is identifying areas that are not currently convenient to get to our theatre hub,” explained Hetrick.
“The idea is to be able to hit these major retail nodes where people are already going for shopping for other reasons and then it’s convenient for them to come by the Krispy Kreme.
Michael Kehoe, Broker of Record with Fairfield Commercial Real Estate, is the exclusive real estate broker for Krispy Kreme Canada in the Calgary market. “I am looking forward to helping the team at Krispy Kreme Canada build on their successful grand opening in Calgary this past June. New suburban satellite locations are in the works as the search for free-standing cafe pad or end-cap drive-thru locations in the 800 -1,200-square-foot range continues across the city. These new locations will be supported by the free-standing ‘Hot Light Factory’ hub location at 9629 Macleod Trail South that opened this past in June.”
“I would say, if we have four or five locations in addition to the hub, that’s a great opportunity for us and for Calgary,” added Hetrick.
In Toronto, the brand has three hubs and nine cafes.
In Vancouver, it has one hub and a cafe opening before the end of the year.
“Vancouver is a tricky real estate market, to be honest, it’s just trying to find locations where the rent makes sense is much more challenging. So we’re looking across all of Vancouver right now, but have just found the one location so far,” said Hetrick.
The hubs make the donuts for the cafe locations as well as the company’s fundraising program and its wholesale presence with Costco, one of Krispy Kreme’s main partners.
“We’ve been with them for a long time in Ontario and Quebec. We just recently launched in Vancouver, and recently in Edmonton, and then early next year, we’ll look at doing Costco in Calgary too. And that program is somewhat unique. We call it a road show program. We’re there for a period of two weeks, sort of a limited time only offer at a slight discount to retail. And then we won’t be back again for, call it three months or so,” added Hetrick. “It’s another type of convenience play.
“In addition to Costco, we are looking at a partnership with Loblaws. We just piloted with them in Ontario, and it seems to be going well. This would be a very similar program to what I just mentioned in Costco . . . Still early days. Got to figure out how that’s going to play out, but I think that’s a great one. And then I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our fundraising program. It is the other kind of channel for us, and it’s a really great, great program, I think, for us and for the local charities or sports organizations and things where they purchase the donuts at a discount and then they sell for full price or whatever they choose, and keep the profits.”
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