Sweet Hearts: Gruenstadt, Korea Bakeries Provide a Taste of Krispy Kreme Valentine’s Day Doughnuts

Like so many holidays at the Exchange, Valentine’s Day starts months before the actual day. For the Exchange’s bakeries in Gruenstadt, Germany, and USAG Humphreys in South Korea, a Valentine’s Day Krispy Kreme promotion started in August.

Since 2015, the Gruenstadt bakery has been Krispy Kreme’s supplier in Europe, producing millions of the company’s doughnuts for troops and families across the continent. The Humphreys bakery, which opened in November 2021, also produces Krispy Kreme.

“Krispy Kreme offers a variety of limited-time offers to continuously provide customers with new products,” said Gruenstadt Bakery Plant Manager Benedikt Emmerich. “We try to participate in some of these, as they are promoted worldwide by Krispy Kreme on social media platforms.”

Krispy Kreme contacts the bakery to see whether it would like to participate in the offers, as the company did in August, when it asked about the Valentine’s Day promotion. The Gruenstadt bakery said yes.

Decorator Neli Toneva and Dough Mixer/Oven Operator Daniel Florstedt (back to camera) work on Krispy Kreme Valentine’s Day doughnuts at the Exchange bakery in Gruenstadt, Germany.

The same month, Craig Masek, Exchange chief of restaurant support, was visiting the Humphreys bakery. He and Food Plant Operations Manager Uji Battle suggested that the bakery join in the promotion.

“Based on their suggestion, we contacted the Krispy Kreme team and received tips and advice from the Gruenstadt bakery,” said Sung Choi, Humphreys bakery plant manager, adding that the bakery also participated in a Krispy Kreme Christmas offer. “The Gruenstadt team possesses top-tier skills and knowledge in baking and related sciences.”

Choi added that Emmerich and former Bakery Plant Manager Mathias Baum, who is now chief of European Industrial Activity, provided valuable advice on recipes and procedures.

Although the bakeries are more than 5,000 miles and several time zones apart, they communicate regularly via phone and email.

“We coordinated how to make the respective changes to the decorations, compared our options, and had a call to exchange ideas and support each other,” Emmerich said of the Valentine’s Day promotion. “We have discussed expanding our collaboration for future LTOs and potentially using the same raw materials.”

The four heart-shaped Valentine’s Day doughnuts were designed by Krispy Kreme, but because of challenges of sourcing some of the ingredients (mainly decorations) in a timely manner, the bakeries are allowed to make minor modifications—which must be submitted to Krispy Kreme for approval.

The special doughnuts:

• Daisy for You, an unglazed doughnut filled with White KREME™, dipped in strawberry icing, drizzled with yellow icing and topped with a chocolate daisy.
• Love You Bunches, filled with Chocolate KREME™, dipped in red icing, drizzled with green stems and topped with chocolate curls.
• Best Buds, filled with Cookies & KREME™, dipped in purple icing and sprinkled with hearts-in-bloom blend
• You Are My Sunshine, filled with Caramel KREME™, dipped in chocolate icing, drizzled with a green stem and topped with a sunflower.

USAG Humphreys bakery associate Alma Danzy with Krispy Kreme Valentine’s Day doughnuts ready for more decoration.

Some of the decorations were provided by Exchange suppliers: Bombasei provided chocolate daisies for Daisy for You; Dobla Europe the chocolate curls for Love You Bunches; Decopac US provided Mini Hearts Quins for Best Buds.

Emmerich said that working with the local suppliers is usually very straightforward.

“They offer comparable products and can deliver to us promptly,” he said. “We are often in close contact with them and may even meet them at trade fairs. They can also produce the ingredients for us in the desired quantity.”

For all ingredients requested from local supplier, Gruenstadt’s Quality Assurance department, especially QA Manager Maggy Knopf, reviews spec sheets to ensure that the ingredients comply with U.S. food regulations.

Gruenstadt also works with R. Howard, a United Kingdom-based packaging manufacturer, to receive packaging in a timely manner. R. Howard receives technical drawings from Krispy Kreme to help design the boxes,

“As we sometimes use different ingredients, our QA department prepares the ingredient list and nutrition facts,” Emmerich said. “We then send this information to the UK, where it is printed directly onto the packaging. This way, we ensure that we receive the packaging in a timely manner.”

Knopf also provided the ingredient list and nutritional information for the Korea bakery’s boxes. Sung added that his bakery’s inventory management team, Connie Samaniego and Shane Salas from the headquarters-based Planning, Allocation and Replenishment (PAR) team, assisted greatly in placing orders with Sysco International Food Group, the vendor that the Exchange buys Krispy Kreme ingredients from.

The Korea bakery produced 144 packages (six counts per package) of doughnuts. The total count of heart-shaped doughnuts is 576 each. About 80% of the Valentine’s doughnuts had sold by 9 a.m. Korea time on Friday.

As of Friday, Gruenstadt had sold nearly 1,200 12-count boxes of the special doughnuts. Although Emmerich didn’t have full sales statistics, he did hear from the Aviano Express in Italy, which ordered 282 Valentine’s Day boxes from Gruenstadt for Feb. 12—and sold out of them by 10 a.m. Feb. 13.

“Stefania Filanti, the Aviano Express store manager, wrote to me that she saw how much our customers were excited about this product,” Emmerich said. “Customers would walk in and be directed right to the doughnut display!”