Krispy Kream creamed in Oz and Hong Kong

A touch of smug self-satisfaction on reading of the demise of Krispy Kream in Australia. 

We had considered buying the franchise for Hong Kong some years ago.  That was after we’d already bought, in 1999, and established the franchise of the Wall Street Institute in Hong Kong, the first in Asia -- and which is just now celebrating its tenth anniversary(*) --  so we thought we knew something about US franchise operations (because we did…).

The thing that stopped us buying the Krispy Kream franchise...

was the concern about what we’d be selling: cal-horrific cholesterol bombs.

That’s proved to be their downfall in Oz.  After a good start, people were just put off by the amount of fat and calories in the things.

We always felt we wanted to sell something that was good and good for you.  Teaching English was.  Selling sickly sweet donuts wasn’t.

And that’s proved to be the right decision.

Hong Kong's KK franchise, by the way, was equally ill-fated.  It opened in September '06 and went into liquidation in October '08.

(*) Postscript: Wall Street Institute's Tenth Anniversary announcement and video, here.