How did you get into the donut industry?

The East Coast is lacking in quality independent doughnut stores. Dunkin is extensive in the area, but it has lost focus on doughnuts and most agree they taste or make you feel bad.  We provide freshly house-made organic doughnuts to meet the demands of today’s consumer who cares far more about what is in their food these days.

What’s New in the Business or in the Chesapeake Doughnut Franchise Model?

Younger and older consumers agree that simple, organic, and fresh ingredients are what they want for themselves and their children. Chesapeake Doughnut Company delivers, while the others use mixes filled with preservatives and foaming agents. As such, we intend to be ‘Chipotle’ of doughnuts, following in their successful footsteps of simple, clean, freshly made food in a fast-casual setting. Once someone tries Chesapeake Doughnut Co. and understands they are eating clean treats made fresh from scratch, they are a customer for life and are very loyal. With staples and seasonal varieties of doughnuts, there’s always a craving and something new to explore with our freshly made yeast and cake doughnuts.

Where do you See Opportunities or Challenges for the Franchise/Business Moving Forward?

There are opportunities all over the region to provide freshly made doughnuts, breakfast, and lunch items to a market without many quality alternatives.  There are also areas of opportunity providing catering, group, and business breakfasts and lunches.   There are great location opportunities in urban areas, tourist destinations, as well as suburban fast casual or drive-through facilities for Chesapeake Doughnut.

We are a new franchise, and marketing and brand awareness are challenges in new locations.  This challenge can be overcome by planning an adequate advertising budget and getting to know the community in which you are located.

What is your Goal for the Business Moving Forward?

Our goal is to open at least a dozen franchise locations over the next few years throughout the mid-Atlantic region creating a known regional brand while maintaining quality and consistency.

Talk to us About Training and Support, How Do You Deliver?

We provide franchise owners with a two-part training method.  Owners and senior staff will travel to our headquarters in Virginia where they will learn the systems, recipes, and methods. Training is provided for management in marketing, Point of Sale operation and setup, scheduling, and all aspects of daily operation. The lead doughnut engineer/chef will be in our kitchen learning how to make yeast and cake doughnuts, toppings, and fillings, as well as all our lunch and beverage items. We also provide a full training manual documenting the details for future reference.

The second part of the training is in-store.  Our team will travel to your location, assist with setup, train additional staff, and get the location open and operational.

Phone support is provided from 3 AM to 5 PM  where trained staff respond to any operational questions.  Additional business management, accounting, IT, marketing, and back-office support are available.

Define your Franchise Model:

  1. Training and Support Model?
    Our Two-part training includes travel to an open location for initial training, on-site training to prepare for opening day, a detailed franchise manual, and continuing support to enable franchisee success
  2. What is the Fee Structure?
    Upfront Fee of $35,000, with an ongoing royalty fee of 5%. 1% of sales will also be collected for franchisor-directed advertising in your region.
  3. Territory Definition?
    We are open to multiple locations or area sales with exclusivity agreements, but each store will have plenty of room to operate and develop their business, we want stores to do great volume and see a fantastic return on investment with the Chesapeake Doughnut franchise system.
  4. Day in the life of a Chesapeake Doughnut Franchisee?
    We are in the business of making people happy, every day, people come to us to have a treat, a great coffee and we take our role in the community seriously.  It’s a lot of fun and a ton of excitement every day, for the right franchise owner, this is a business that is loads of fun and keeps every day exciting.

What does Your Franchisee Do in the Business Every Day?

An Owner/Operator usually will arrive in the morning at about 6:30. Making sure the store is cleaned, doughnuts ready, and staff presentable.  Store management duties like scheduling, ordering, inventory, bookkeeping, and marketing are mixed in between assisting staff with taking and fulfilling orders during rush hours.  The manager would be done with their work day by 2:30 PM, and rely on staff to close and clean the store.

A non-operating owner will rely on a strong Store Manager to maintain the daily activities of the store.  This non-operating owner will need to maintain excellent back-office support to provide additional business resources outside of a store manager position (business activities like marketing and bookkeeping)

Who is the Ideal Franchise Candidate?

The ideal candidate is a successful franchisee who is looking to diversify their ownership portfolio with a quality breakfast and lunch offering.

The ideal candidate will be a highly motivated, experienced small business owner or chef/baker looking to start their own business.  We are looking for someone who has a passion for doughnuts and understands our brand identity of quality hand-made organic products.

Success Stories and Failures with Franchisees?

 After successfully establishing three locations, we are ready to implement our plan for a franchisee. Our Success with our corporate store includes the setup, training, quality control, and operation of our locations in a distributed geographic area.  We have trained multiple store managers, chefs and retail clerks, and have a proven business background to assist in the implementation of new locations.

What Goals Do You Have for the Franchise Model in the Future?

We look to have stores in multiple metro areas in the Mid-Atlantic region in the near future.  Long-term goals include expansion to the Northeast and South.

For more information on the Chesapeake Doughnut Franchise system, visit the corporate site: https://cdoughnut.com/