CEO Ousted at Troubled Krispy Kreme

[merwin]

CEO Ousted at Troubled Krispy Kreme
46 minutes ago Business - AP
By PAUL NOWELL, AP Business Writer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Chief executive officer Scott Livengood was ousted Tuesday as head of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., the once-trendy chain whose stock price has plummeted amid a federal securities investigation and allegations of padded sales figures. Shares of Krispy Kreme jumped more than 17 percent on the news.

The Winston-Salem company's board of directors said Livengood, who has been criticized for his handling of the company's recent financial problems, would retire as part of a series of "important actions to address the company's current situation." Livengood, 52, who has been at the helm for seven years and led the company's rapid rise, was replaced as CEO by Stephen Cooper, a turnaround specialist who most recently shepherded the Enron Corp. bankruptcy.

The company also warned of persistent declines in sales and said it may post a fourth quarter loss.
...


Awww... Krispy Kreme isn't gonna last much longer...

[soleft]

1. Damn Atkins

[Blue_Tires]

2. WTF???

how can you NOT continue make Krispy Kreme an unbridled success??? The product has spoken for itself for years!!

[progressiveBadger]

7. Some say it's because you can get them everywhere now

I've heard that many believe that KK was so successful because they were hard to find. Now you can go to pretty much any gas station or grocery store (at least here in Phoenix) and get them.
But I agree... deepfried sugar? How is this not MORE popular? :)

[Dora]

12. You can't be any more right.

They failed to pay attention to the laws of supply and demand and they oversaturated the market.

Yeah, people can blame it on Atkins and carbophobia, but donut chains have been struggling for years. Dunkin Donuts and Winchells are the two chains I remember from my youth, and I think only DD is still around. Even so, it's quite an egg hunt to find one.

After the excitement of OOOH going to Krispy Kreme and OOOH watching the donut machines in action, most people got tired of making a special trip just to buy their freakin' donuts. After all... if you're buying donuts for the office, most people will settle for the variety your nearest grocery store makes. If you're buying a donut for yourself, you're probably going to do it at the same place you pump gas or buy your cigarettes. If you're buying a dozen donuts for the family, you're probably going to go to the closest neighborhood donut shop, rather than drive an extra mile or five to find a Krispy Kreme. Or you can go to Target - they're selling KKs now.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE DONUTS. I don't like Krispy Kreme - they're too sugary.

MRS. JOHNSON'S DONUTS ROCKS! They have the best plain glazed donuts ever.

KEN'S DONUTS runs a closed second. They have the best blueberry cake donuts ever.

[Renew Deal]

15. They are everywhere in NY now too.

A store popped up in East Meadow. Now KK donuts are at gas stations, supermarkets and other odd ball stores all over.

[bkcc]

3. Pardon the pun....

but I think that Scott Livengood may not be livin' so good in the future.

:eyes:

[Warpy]

4. Too bad

They were one of the few benefits of living in the south in the early 60s, a flavor of my misspent youth.

They're too sweet for me now, but I've been known to sample them when someone has brought a box of them into work. I can't eat a whole one, those days are over.

I hope that booting a crooked CEO plus the decline of the low carb diet fad will keep them going. The alternatives out there are foul.

[benburch]

6. I prefer Dunkin Donuts...

Or even our local independent Roll-N-Donut to KK. The KK doughnuts are too soft and too sweet by far for me.

[Warpy]

11. Dunkies are the reason they used to call 'em SINKERS

Those things are like a concrete block in your gut for the duration of their (slow) travel through your GI system.

[tridim]

5. Screw em.. They're a big Repuke contributor

Maybe King Bush will bail them out like the airline industry.

[UL_Approved]

8. Enron, the Next Generation

This is the next round of corporate cleanout via Bush support. This will be interesting to see how it plays out.

[tnlefty]

9. My sentiments, too. Dunkin' Donuts donate to the GOP, also

eom

[President Jesus]

17. The facts: Livengood donated $8000 GOP, $2000 Dem

details: http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=NC&last=Livengood&first=Scott

[genieroze]

10. I used to like their donuts but not anymore. n/t

[hyphenate]

13. It might be just me

But when I was living in L.A., there were very few decent donut places. Winchells never really cut the mustard, and I only tried Krispy Kreme a handful of times.

I was, however, always a big fan of Dunkin' Donuts. That's what you get when you're born and raised in New England. There were no Dunkin' Donuts in the area we lived in S. Cal, except for one that died about two years after I was there.

I don't think Krispy Kreme can compete with DD here in New England, although they have tried to establish a few around here. Their menu is far too limited to compete with New England's biggest donut chain.

[NashVegas]

18. Dunkin Donuts Was Run Out of Nashville

By KK. Big bummer, because like you, I grew up in the Northeast.

KK were all right for an occasional sugar buzz, but I miss DD.

[Minstrel Boy]

14. "How Krispy got creamed" in Canada. The Globe and Mail a month ago:

on how Krispy Kreme's introduction to Canada a couple of years ago has been a miserable failure

How Krispy got creamed; Remember the Great Doughnut War? Uncle Sam's holey warrior didn't stand a chance

Mid-morning on Bay Street: The stock market has been open for half an hour, and the pedestrian traffic in downtown Toronto's underground mall has thinned. In the basement of Scotia Plaza, one corner is still busy. Tim Hortons can get so crowded that a portable barrier like the ones used to corral passengers at airport counters is needed to keep the lineup from spilling too far into the food court. Even now, after the morning rush has eased, harried workers keep all four cash registers running at full speed.... At the Krispy Kreme outlet one block away, there's no need for crowd control. For that matter, there's hardly a need for any staff.

...


“Tim Hortons — the previously undisputed doughnut king in Canada — had better get ready for an all-out war on its home turf,” Canadian Business magazine declared. Well, Tim Hortons was ready. It has been teaching its arrogant American rival a few lessons about fast-food marketing — on both sides of the border.

...

Inside Tim Hortons, they have dismissed the low-carb diets as “a fad,” Mr. Moir says. What's not a passing trend is customers' desire for less-fattening food. And reliable Tim Hortons — usually open, usually clean — has been feeding it to them in increasing quantities, particularly since the late-1990s introduction of sandwich counters. As a result, the company's reliance on doughnuts and other sweet treats has declined: 77 per cent of its Canadian sales are items other than baked goods. Ten per cent now is lunch food. (Coffee remains the biggest seller, at 50 per cent.)

...

The appeal of a Krispy Kreme doughnut is its freshness. Its so-called factory stores are designed so that customers can watch them being made behind glass. The signature design element, of course, is a circular red neon sign that reads, “Hot Doughnuts Now” and lights up when a new batch is ready. But KremeKo began to sell its products in boxes to Wal-Mart and Loblaws stores, even Petro-Canada and Shell gas stations. That was a fatal blunder, Mr. Talbot says. (Officials at KremeKo and parent Krispy Kreme would not comment.)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041218/TIMBITS18/Focus/?query=Krispy+Kreme

[SmokingJacket]

16. This is just so dumb!

Krispy Kreme is a DOUGHNUT SHOP! Did they think the fad was going to go on and on and on? That they were going to sweep the business world and the stock was going to STAY high forever? Of course sales are down. They were ridiculously *high* before.

Good doughnuts; but a short-lived national mania. A person can only eat so many doughnuts.

[Piperay]

19. I was excited when they first came to the Los Angeles area

but now they sell them everywhere so there is nothing special about them anymore. x(

[Skittles]

20. disgusting donuts

glaze-covered lard

[quaoar]

21. Krispy Kreme rules!!!!

Those Yankee donuts (Dunkin Donuts) are just too damn cakey.

I like my sugar deep-fried.

[jmowreader]

22. Krispy Kremes are great if you get them at Krispy Kreme...

and you eat them while they're still hot.

If you buy a box at the supermarket, they're okay but not outstanding.

Occasionally I'll go up to KK on a day when I'm off and have four or five along with a cup of cocoa. That's really good, or at least I think so, but KK is too far from my house to justify doing it very often.

[Mitt Chovick]

23. Good Donuts, Bad Accounting Practices

It's a shame.

[Guns Aximbo]

24. I get sick

every time I eat that shit.