Cypress-based\u00a0WKS Restaurant Group has increased\u00a0its\u00a0ownership stake in\u00a0the\u00a0company\u2019s\u00a0joint venture with Krispy Kreme\u00a0Inc. from 45% to 80%.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
WKS,\u00a0founded by Chief Executive Roland Spongberg in 1987, paid approximately $90 million to Krispy Kreme\u00a0on March 23. The donut chain said it plans to use the funds, which included approximately $50 million of cash,\u00a0to reduce debt (Nasdaq:\u00a0DNUT).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0transaction added\u00a023 company-operated\u00a0locations in California and Hawaii\u00a0to the joint venture with WKS, which previously counted 50 Krispy Kreme shops and approximately 1,000 delivery locations at Kroger, Target, and Walmart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are reinforcing our confidence in the brand and positioning the business to accelerate development across the Western U.S.,\u201d WKS CEO Spongberg said in a statement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur long-standing partnership with WKS has been key to Krispy Kreme\u2019s growth in the Western U.S.,\u201d Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth added.\u00a0\u201cThis transaction advances our strategy to drive sustainable, profitable growth through capital-light refranchising while further reducing our leverage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
WKS Restaurant Group\u00a0also\u00a0operates\u00a0El Pollo Loco,\u00a0Wendy\u2019s\u00a0and\u00a0Denny\u2019s\u00a0restaurants, and counts more than\u00a010,000 employees\u00a0across 19 states.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cypress-based\u00a0WKS Restaurant Group has increased\u00a0its\u00a0ownership stake in\u00a0the\u00a0company\u2019s\u00a0joint venture with Krispy Kreme\u00a0Inc. from 45% to 80%.\u00a0\u00a0 WKS,\u00a0founded by Chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,12416],"class_list":{"0":"post-236193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-free-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}