Financing

How Shipley Do-Nuts is bringing its brand into the future

A Deeper Dive: Flynn Dekker, CEO of the donut and kolache chain, joins the podcast to talk about how to get an 87-year-old concept ready for growth.

This episode of A Deeper Dive is brought to you by Zero Hour Health.

zero hour health

How do you get an 87-year-old brand ready for expansion?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Flynn Dekker, the CEO of the 352-unit donut and kolache chain Shipley Do-Nuts.

Shipley is an institution in its hometown of Houston, something Dekker discovered after he took over as CEO last year.

But it is also an old brand. It’s been around for nearly 90 years. The longtime family-owned chain was sold to Peak Rock Capital in 2021 and since then has taken numerous steps to change operations and processes to bring it into a more modern age.

We talk about all of that on the podcast, including the company’s efforts on marketing and what that's doing to the brand, along with processes, franchising and technology. We also talk about kolaches and what that does for the brand’s business.

It’s a fascinating conversation with an interesting brand, so check it out.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Despite their complaints, customers keep flocking to Chipotle

The Bottom Line: The chain continued to be a juggernaut last quarter, with strong sales and traffic growth, despite frequent social media complaints about shrinkflation or other challenges.

Operations

Hitting resistance elsewhere, ghost kitchens and virtual concepts find a happy home in family dining

Reality Check: Old-guard chains are finding the alternative operations to be persistently effective side hustles.

Financing

The Tijuana Flats bankruptcy highlights the dangers of menu miscues

The Bottom Line: The fast-casual chain’s problems following new menu debuts in 2021 and 2022 show that adding new items isn’t always the right idea.

Trending

More from our partners