McDonald’s is the latest chain restaurant to change its menu amid the summer season.
According to Men’s Journal, Mickey D’s is removing Krispy Kreme items from its menu in just a few days. Read on for why the companies decided to end their partnership and how long you have to buy your last Krispy Kreme doughnut at McDonald’s.
McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme’s partnership began in 2023
Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s partnership stretches back to late 2023, when the food companies pursued a test rollout of Krispy Kreme items at 160 McDonald’s restaurants in Kentucky, USA Today reported. A year later, in October 2024, McDonald’s locations in the Chicago area started selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts, including the Original Glazed Doughnut, the Chocolate Iced with Sprinkles Doughnut and the Chocolate Iced Kreme Filled Doughnut.
At the same time, Krispy Kreme locations offered customers a free doughnut if they showed a McDonald’s paper or digital receipt from Oct. 10-14, 2024.
As of March 2025, Krispy Kreme’s famous doughnuts were available at about 2,400 McDonald’s restaurants, Men’s Journal reported. The doughnut company planned to roll out its menu items in participating McDonald’s restaurants by the end of next year.
Krispy Kreme items to be removed from McDonald’s menus on July 2
On Wednesday, Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s announced the end of their partnership, citing profitability as the reason for their split.
“We were excited and pleased to partner with Krispy Kreme,” Alyssa Buetikofer, McDonald’s USA’s chief marketing and customer experience officer, said in a news release. “We had strong collaboration with Krispy Kreme and they delivered a great, high-quality product for us, and while the partnership met our expectations for McDonald’s and Owner/Operators, this needed to be a profitable business model for Krispy Kreme as well.”
“Our two companies partnered very closely, each supporting execution, marketing, and training, delivering a great consumer experience in approximately 2,400 McDonald’s restaurants,” Josh Charlesworth, Krispy Kreme CEO, also noted. “Ultimately, efforts to bring our costs in line with unit demand were unsuccessful, making the partnership unsustainable for us.”
Moving on from the partnership, Krispy is now “focused on making its fresh doughnuts available in more places, not just to eat but to share, through its two largest opportunities: profitable U.S. expansion through high-volume retail points of distribution and capital-light international franchise growth,” according to the news release.
Krispy Kreme menu items will be available at McDonald’s locations until July 2.
