bake - November 2017 - 34

CALIFORNIA

Donuts
Along with Instagram and Snapchat, California

Decades ago, donuts represented a low-cost business

Donuts utilizes social media sites like Facebook to

startup for many Cambodians in Southern California.

generate excitement about its brand and monitor
customer demand and activity. One new Facebook

Fast forward to 2017, and donuts are no longer

feature that helps accomplish this mission is called

synonymous with the word bargain. Many shops sell

Popular Hours, which shows when the bakery is

gourmet donuts that are as colorful as they are costly.

busiest. For example, Popular Hours reveals that

There are numerous shops in America selling gourmet

walk-in traffic at California Donuts in Los Angeles

donuts every day for $3 to $4 apiece.

peaks between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. every Friday night.
$2.50 or $3. The specialty menu includes their signa-

opened 35 years ago as a tiny donut shop but cata-

ture Panda donut made with Oreo pieces, Blueberry

pulted into fame based on its eye-catching, photo-

Toast Crunch, Strawberry and Nuts, Samoa, and

worthy creations. "We have now become a late night

Lucky Charms. To say that Kuoch and her creative

dessert spot in Los Angeles. Our product is unique.

social media team are savvy is a massive understate-

We are inventors, not followers." It's notable to

ment. California Donuts boasts a whopping 463,000

point out that her parents ﬂed Cambodia during the

followers on Instagram. They are equally active on

Vietnam War and came to Los Angeles as refugees.

Snapchat.

Their concept is a 24-hour bakery that special-

at one store in Tulsa. This about sums up the

izes in handmade donuts topped with quirky

phenomenal success of Hurts Donut, a once

ingredients. Popular orders include a Hurts

tiny donut shop that's grown to 15 stores and

Dozen, with toppings ranging from crunchy

$23 million in annual sales in just four years.

breakfast cereal to Nutella swirled into the

Hurts Donut

One million dollars of donut sales in 88 days

CALIFORNIA DONUTS

Specialty donuts at California Donuts sell for $2,

Danette Kuoch, manager of California Donuts, which

shape of a popular emoji.

"I had $7.36 in my bank account the day
we opened our ﬁrst store," says Tim Clegg,

"Initially, it was anything that didn't belong on

who founded Hurts Donut with his wife Kas

a donut," Clegg says of their donut toppings.

(the donut connoisseur of the family) in

"We'd try different candies or cereals. If

Springﬁeld, Missouri, in November 2013. "Now,

people gravitated toward it, we followed the

every day is a pinch-me moment."

demand. Now it is much more of a science

It's almost surreal for him to think back

and we use our original store as a test market.
That's our creative lab."

four years when they unveiled their ﬁrst
1,490-square-foot, 24-hour location with

Roughly 70 percent of their donut sales are

absolutely no donut experience. They opened

cake donuts, while yeast-raised account

the Springﬁeld store at 5 on a Monday

for the remainder. In all, they sell about 77

morning with no clue what to expect.

varieties of donuts. There are two company

"We had $2,000 in sales the ﬁrst day," Clegg

stores. Scott Bussard, chief ﬁnancial officer,

recalls. "Then every day it was 10 percent

handles many of the lease negotiations.

higher, then another 10% higher. We realized
right away that we were understaffed and our
kitchen was too small."

34 < NOV 2017 | bakemag.com

"It's a lot easier conversation now," Clegg
says. "We have brand recognition."

HURTS DONUT

stores, both in Springﬁeld, and 13 franchise
http://www.bakemag.com
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