Reuters, 1 July – Krispy Kreme (DNUT.O) shares dropped 4% in their Nasdaq debut on Thursday, pricing the producer of the “Original Glazed” doughnut at $2.62 billion in its five-year comeback to the public market. The shares began trading at $16.30, down from its original public offering price of $17. Krispy Kreme’s initial public offering (IPO) was priced significantly below the targeted range of $500 million, reflecting a lackluster response from investors during one of the busiest weeks for stock market debuts in the US. It had set a price range of $21 to $24 per share for the 29.4 million shares it was selling. After spending his last $25 renting a building in what is now known as Old Salem, Krispy Kreme’s late founder Vernon Rudolph created the chain’s first doughnut in 1937 with goods he borrowed from a local grocer. After removing the back seat of his 1936 Pontiac and installing a delivery rack, Rudolph delivered the first doughnuts to a nearby grocery store. Later, he had to make a hole in the wall to set up a retail storefront where he could sell hot doughnuts straight to customers. Krispy Kreme today has around 1,400 retail locations in 33 countries, as well as approximately 12,000 supermarket, convenience, and mass merchant locations in the United States. Noor Zainab Hussain contributed reporting from Bengaluru, and Arun Koyyur edited the piece. The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles are our standards./n
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