2023-12-12 06:45:00

“The star here is the product”: Alexandre Maizoué, Krispy Kreme general manager in France, was very proud to unveil, last week, the first concept store for Homer Simpson’s favorite donut brand (pink!), just installed in the Les Halles shopping center, in Paris.

“We hope for 3,000 checkouts per day”

The 550 m² premises, left vacant by Alain Ducasse’s Champeaux, prove to be an ideal space to install an entirely glazed sales and production line, where donuts – or donuts – are fried before the eyes of customers before being be covered with a transparent glaze. Guaranteed freshness.

To win this bet on France, the 39th country of operation for the American brand born in North Carolina in 1937, Alexandre Maizoué has worked hard: more than two million euros invested in this place “where we hope for 3,000 checkout passes per day” and where it is possible to manufacture up to 42,000 parts daily.

A 550 m² space dedicated to the production of donuts. Photo EBRA Info/VMM

“There are two million butter croissants sold every day in France, we hope to take our small share of stomach” he summarizes, mentioning current projects: home delivery should start in February 2024 , a second production workshop will see the light of day in Créteil, east of the capital, in March, and 500 sales access points are hoped for by 2028, particularly in shopping centers and Lyon train stations. and Saint-Lazare.

“We’re just trying to make our little hole, make our brand and our box of twelve known,” he adds, arguing that with the purchase of a Krispy Kreme donut, it’s also “a piece of pop culture and American way of life” that we treat ourselves to, via a premium but accessible treat. With sugar, but also with chocolate, cinnamon, raspberry filling, cream… Thirteen recipes are already available, including the iconic Original glazed. It’s fatty, comforting, and best hot!

The iconic Original Glazed from Krispy Kreme. Photo EBRA Info/VMM

Some versions are offered without a hole but with a filling. Photo EBRA Info/VMM

“They took over the French codes”

Like Krispy Kreme, several American brands have recently arrived on the French market, notably burgers from Five Guys, Popeyes and soon Wendy’s: all wanting their piece of the pie. “France, the country of gastronomy, is also one of the countries in the world in which American chains of influence […] are growing strongly,” confirms François Blouin, president and founder of the research company Food Service Vision, to AFP.

With the same success? “Krispy Kreme did a communications campaign that was pretty great. They have adopted French codes: the croissant, the chocolate or the chocolatine, the macaroon…,” notes Clémentine Hugol-Gential, specialist in contemporary food issues at the University of Burgundy, paying herself a bad price in the process. buzz with the Paris town hall, which accused the firm of illegal posting.

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Queues of 1.5 kilometers

Also, in November, the brand organized the distribution by scooter of nearly 100,000 free donuts to key locations in the capital. Result: queues of a kilometer and a half. “They created demand. This is truly a campaign that was made to go viral. » Witness the 400 customers who waited for the store to open at 8 a.m., some even having slept in front of it the day before D-Day, bordering on rioting, encouraged by the promise of winning “up to a year’s worth of donuts” for the first arrivals.

A temporary madness? “You have to see in the long term,” says our expert. Certainly, the donut benefits from the good image generated through American series, but “we are currently only talking regarding a store, and they have fewer direct competitors”, while fast-food restaurants like Popeyes or Five Guys, “did not succeed in establishing themselves as massively as they hoped, outside the big cities”, in the midst of burgermania.

The reason: in addition to the large number of players on the market, certain competitors, such as McDonald’s, are resisting, having been present for a very long time. “These fast food restaurants have renewed themselves, worked on short circuits, the development of organic products…” They have adapted to a certain French requirement, to the point of “de-Americanizing” themselves.

And tomorrow ? Clémentine Hugol-Gential discusses the potential of the cookie, which has attempted a breakthrough for the moment, and that, more surprisingly, of the hot dog. Only problem ? “The French spend time at the table, at lunchtime, in restaurants, in company canteens… Where Americans eat on the go from a food truck. But why not ? »

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