No more sugar-glazed donuts in Hong Kong soon! US-based Krispy Kreme (KKD) franchisees in Hong Kong are getting liquidated. This time the financial turmoil has gone through a full circle: the crisis first started with subprime in the US, then it spread to HK, and now it is affecting a US-based company!
There are seven stores in Hong Kong. Five will be closed immediately and the other two in the Hong Kong International Airport will remain operational until further notice.
I am always amazed at how these donuts can become more popular in Asia than in the US. In the US, Krispy Kreme was a fad: every one wanted to try their deep-fried sugar-glazed donuts at least once, but then after a while people seem to forget about it and become worried about the unhealthiness of these sugar blocks. But, to my amazement, I saw in Tokyo last year that there were actually people lining up for Krispy Kreme during lunch! And in Hong Kong, the stores were definitely more packed than those in the US.
Surprisingly KKD is up 4% at this very moment and is not affected by the HK liquidation at all. But I am happy to know that soon the smell of those oily deep-fried donuts will disappear in Hong Kong.
