Krispy Kreme's Unlikely Comeback

Investors have regained their appetite for the doughnut maker

Glazed doughnuts roll along on a conveyor belt at a Krispy Kreme store in Charlotte, N.C. Photograph by Chuck Burton/AP Photo

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By Roben Farzad

February 22, 2013 at 11:11 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

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This article is part of the March 4, 2013 issue of businessweek.

(An earlier version of this story ran online.)

In the three years following Krispy Kreme Doughnuts’ initial public offering in 2000, its shares soared 840 percent, despite a bear market. Back then, everyone wanted a bite of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) doughnut maker: Baseball great Hank Aaron scored a franchise in Atlanta, and American Bandstander Dick Clark lobbied unsuccessfully for a Times Square concession. In 2003 the cover of Fortune magazine anointed Krispy Kreme “America’s hottest brand.”