Published: 13 April 2007
Krispy Kremes "are to other doughnuts what angels are to men". This superlative - in The New York Times, on the 1996 opening of the first Manhattan outlet for the historic Southern American doughnut chain - was the first of a torrent.
From a sleepy North Carolina company with a handful of outlets, Krispy Kreme suddenly became a cult sensation. Every celebrity wanted to be seen munching these light, fluffy snacks: Rosie O'Donnell had a doughnut machine installed on the set of her television show; Bill Clinton ordered boxes in to the White House.
By 2003, when the smell of freshly baked Krispy Kremes first wafted across London, from a kiosk in Harrods, the company was a global sensation, with a sensational share-price record to match. Only something was about to go very, very wrong.
Last night, when the company released its latest financial results to Wall Street, it was braving a conference call with analysts for the first time in almost three years. In the interim, the company has confessed to a string of underhand tactics that inflated earnings, admitted that large chunks of its previously reported profits were illusory, and shut down one in four of its outlets. continue...
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