Of doughnuts, consistency and efficiency.
KDN Company Limited operates Krispy Kreme stores in Thailand. Krispy Kreme is world-famous for its glazed doughnuts originating from America. Incorporated in 2010, KDN Company Limited has become one of the most successful flagship franchises, owing to its brand repositioning exercise in Thailand.
Led by President Ausanee Mahagitsiri Leonio, the company opened its first Krispy Kreme store with record-breaking sales at Siam Paragon, Bangkok’s popular lifestyle and shopping center, in September 2010. The second store soon opened at Central Plaza shopping complex at Ladprao in August 2011.
To meet the growth in popularity of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, the company opened five more branches in less than three years at Central Plaza (Grand Rama 9), The Mall Bangkapi, The Emporium, Suvarnabhumi Airport (domestic terminal) and Don Muang Airport (domestic and international terminals).
By 2014 KDN achieved their one Billion cumulative revenue since opening. In 2016, it expanded its distribution outside of Bangkok and opened its first outlet in Nakorn Ratchasima. Within the span of six years since its inception, there are now 31 stores operating across Thailand.
The company owes its popularity to offering customers the “Best tasting doughnuts that melt in your mouth”. They stay relevant to the market and take great lengths to understanding consumer demands by investing in annual brand tracking services to evaluate brand health and market trends. In addition, KDN keeps their finger on the pulse of the business by conducting monthly consumer surveys to evaluate their consumer’s needs and feedback.
To ensure sustainable growth and profitability, this company anchors their values on product quality, consistency and efficiency. In order to achieve this, KDN believes in creating environments that are pro-innovation and teamwork, where their employees see their place of business as a happy work place with a multi-cultural mix of leadership that focuses on performance and which balances work and life.
KDN places strong emphasis on keeping up with fast-moving digital advancements, while upholding their core values. Hence, they place strong emphasis on training and development programmes where employees are sent abroad to international trainings and seminars on product innovation, research and development, digital marketing and Internet Technology.
“I have developed ‘Value People’ as a strong character trait that leads to success in business,” states Ausanee. This value is translated into the company’s people development programme, and has contributed directly to their success in retaining staff despite the high turnover ratio of manpower faced by the F&B sector. This is despite Thailand having the lowest unemployment rates globally. The company’s development and training has made positive headway in overcoming this challenge, and has confirmed that by increasing their people’s knowledge and skill, staff become more pro-active and stay with the company longer.
On being resilient to economic downturns and storms, Ausanee believes that the key lies in the company’s financially stability. This can only be achieved through careful selection of locations, feasibility studies and being in control of the profit and loss of all locations.
KDN’s vision for the future is firmly set on being a public listed company in Thailand, and to carry on the mission to bring joy and magical moments to the people of Thailand.
KDN gives back to the community through its monthly CSR initiatives that encourages employees to participate and share the joy that is Krispy Kreme. The company has been well recognised and has received various International Awards for its CSR activities, namely, Community Sharing of the year 2012 – Krispy Kreme Global Partners Submit 2012, Community Sharing of the year 2013 – Krispy Kreme Global Partners Submit 2013, The Joy That is Krispy Kreme Award 2016 at the Krispy Kreme Global Conference 2016, The Joy That is Krispy Kreme Award 2017– Krispy Kreme Global Conference 2017 and QSR Asia Media Award 2017 – Detpac QSR Asia, Singapore.
