Mister Donut is an international chain of doughnut stores, operating mostly in Asia. It was founded in the United States in 1956 by Harry Winokur. Primary offerings include doughnuts, coffee, muffins and pastries. After being acquired by Allied Domecq in 1990, most of the North American stores became Dunkin' Donuts. Outside of the United States, Mister Donut maintains a presence in Japan, El Salvador, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore.[1][2][3]
In 1955, Harry Winokur worked with brother-in-law William Rosenberg, the founder of Dunkin' Donuts. After Winokur broke his partnership with Rosenberg, he went on to create Mister Donut with his son-in-law David Slater[4] that same year, with stores in most of North America.[5] The Mister Donut business became so popular that Winokur and Slater decided to go into franchising.[5] As a result, Mister Donut began a rapid expansion that resulted in the opening of 275 stores in the U.S. and Canada.[6] In 1970, Minneapolis-based International Multifoods Corporation, one of the world's largest and most successful food companies, acquired Mister Donut and its franchising concept from Winokur.[5]
The first Mister Donut outlet in Japan opened in Minoh, Osaka in 1971. Also in the same year, a Mister Donut training center was constructed in Japan. In 1973, the French cruller became available in Japan stores.[1] In 1978, brothers Sutthichai and Sutthikiat Chirathiwat, on the behalf of Thai Franchise Co., Ltd, opened the first Mister Donut store in Siam Square, Bangkok. The two would come to pioneer the donut market within Thailand. In 2003, Mister Donut in Thailand came under the management CRG. Donut Thailand (Central Restaurants Group) which continues to manage the company in Thailand.[7] In 1983, Duskin Co., Ltd. of Osaka, Japan, acquired the rights to franchise Mister Donut throughout Japan and Asia.[5]
In the 1980s,[8] Mister Donut was the largest competitor to Dunkin' Donuts.[5] On March 31, 1987, Elie G. Saheb and his business associates acquired the trademark rights for Mister Donut in the United Kingdom and afterwards opened a Mister Donut pilot store and bakery in Fulham, London. On May 2, 1988, the Mister Donut franchise sold the trademark rights for the European market at large.[9]
By the 1980s, Mister Donut had over 550 stores in the United States and Canada. In 1989, the British corporate giant Allied-Lyons plc acquired Dunkin' Donuts from Rosenberg for a reported £196 million. After becoming a subsidiary of Allied-Lyons, Dunkin' Donuts immediately acquired Mister Donut from International Multifoods. Mister Donut stores were offered the option to convert to Dunkin' Donuts.[citation needed] Mister Donut was acquired by Dunkin' Donuts' then-parent company, Allied Lyons, in February 1990. After the acquisition of Mister Donut by Allied-Lyons, all Mister Donut stores in North America were offered the chance to change their name to Dunkin' Donuts while all remaining Mister Donut franchises in the rest of the world started being operated on their own such as in Japan and El Salvador.[5] Mister Donut sold its Middle East trademarks on October 14, 1995.[9]
In July 2005, Allied-Lyons was acquired by Pernod Ricard SA.[10] On 12 December 2005, Pernod Ricard announced that it had agreed to sell Dunkin' Brands, which owned Dunkin' Donuts and Mister Donut, to a consortium of three USprivate equity firms (Thomas H. Lee Partners, the Carlyle Group and Bain Capital LLP) for US$2.43 billion. The closing of the sale occurred on 1 March 2006.[11] In August 2012, Dunkin' Brands became completely independent of the private equity firms.[12]
As of 2017, only one Mister Donut store remains in the United States, in Godfrey, Illinois (outside of St. Louis), while there were 10,000 stores worldwide.[8] As of 2016, Mister Donut Japan had over "1,300 stores, making it the largest donut chain in the country."[13] and as of June 2016, Duskin Co., Ltd. was also operating Mister Donut stores in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, and Malaysia.[14]
In 2020, Dunkin' Brands was purchased by Sandy Springs-based Inspire Brands, and Mister Donut's trademark management became part of Inspire.[15]
Mister Donut has an orange and white logo in the likeness of a moustachioed chef. More recently, the chain developed a set of mascot characters based on its donuts. One character, "Pon de Lion" (ポン・デ・ライオン, Pon De Raion), a lion with a mane shaped like its "pon de ring" (ポン・デ・リング, Pon De Ringu) donut line, is used in Japan.[16][17]
In El Salvador, the mascots are five anthropomorphic doughnuts and a rooster that is used for the breakfast menu. The company uses the same logo as Japan and the slogan is "La gran variedad" (The great variety).[citation needed]
Global stores
Asia
The Mister Donut brand operates in Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Singapore.[18]
In Japan, the Mister Donut franchise is owned by Duskin Co., Ltd., a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. Mister Donut is the largest donut franchise chain in Japan, with a total of 961 retails shops operating as of March 2021.[19] Keiji Chiba, who was Duskin Company's general manager and director of food industries, adjusted the recipes and gave a higher class image so the company would be successful in the Japanese market. Prior to the introduction of Mister Donut, Japanese perceived doughnuts as being snacks for children.[20]
The Star wrote in 2007 that "Mister Donut has gained a following among mostly younger Japanese for its American-style doughnuts, decor and music, becoming the country's biggest donut chain."[21] On September 13, 2013, a survey by the Japanese retail research company, Softbrain Field, surveyed close to 6000 Japanese citizens of all ages on their favorite fast food restaurant. Mister Donut came in third, at 17%, behind McDonald's at 33% and MOS Burger at 25%.[22]
In the Philippines, the first Mister Donut store opened in 1982 in Manila and has become the country's second largest doughnut chain, with Dunkin' Donuts as its main competitor.[23] In 1995, the Ramcar Group took over the Philippine franchise of Mister Donut through its subsidiary, Food Fest, Inc. In 1997, Mister Donut helped finance the country's first ever feature-length animated film, Adarna: The Mythical Bird.[24]
Of its 1,800 outlets, the majority are stalls, often located inside shopping malls, while 200 are full-scale stores. Mister Donut products are also sold in 7-Eleven stores and KFC restaurants. Some locations sell coffee but they mostly focus on doughnuts including pasalubong, gifts by visitors to friends and family. The doughnuts sold are adjusted to suit the local market, with smaller sizes and therefore cheaper and different flavors.[citation needed]
In 2004, the Uni-President Group introduced Mister Donut in Taiwan through the newly established joint-venture Mister Donut Taiwan Corp., announcing a goal to open 100 outlets in Taiwan in three years.[25]
Thailand
In Thailand, Mister Donut has been a leader in the Thai donut market since 1978 and uses the slogan "Donut for Fun". As of December 2011, Thailand was the "largest market outside Japan for Mister Donut in terms of sales volume."[26] Mister Donut has more than 320 branches across Thailand with more opening yearly. They include stand-alone stores as well as branches at shopping malls and supermarkets.[citation needed] In 2014, donut consumption increased 10 and 15 per cent in Thailand, with Mister Donut accounting for half of that increase. In 2015, Thailand's Central Restaurants Group announced plans to open 30 new outlets in 2015, bringing its store number to 350. The company stated that it would be able to sell "it's doughnuts in all 77 provinces by year end." Central has also stated it is considering expanding Mister Donut in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.[27]
Vietnam
In May 2016, plans were announced for Mister Donut stores to open in Vietnam through Central Restaurants Group (CRG).[28]
Indonesia
In Indonesia, Mister Donut is operated under management of Indomaret, a subsidiary of Salim Group. First store was opened in 2015, with 7 standalone outlets and 1,350 stand inside Indomaret outlets, mostly located in city center, malls, airport, rail station or shop-in-shop at every Indomaret outlets.[citation needed]
Singapore
In May 2023, Mister Donut opened its first outlet at Junction 8 in Singapore after a successful market test in August 2022.[3]
In China, Mister Donut closed down in 2019 after nearly 20 years of operations due to high operational cost and high labor cost.[29] 10 outlets in Shanghai closed in April 2019.[30]
Europe and Middle East
On 31 March 1987, Elie G. Saheb and associates acquired the Mister Donut trademark rights for the United Kingdom and opened the first Mister Donut bakery and pilot shop in Fulham, London. The trademark rights for the European markets were acquired on May 2, 1988, and for the Middle East region on October 14, 1995.[citation needed]
The Americas
United States
Interior of the sole Mister Donut store in the United States, located at 2720 Grovelin Street, Godfrey, Illinois
After Mister Donut was acquired by Dunkin' Donuts in 1990, most either closed or became Dunkins.
There were nine outlets in the Pennsylvania and Ohio region that remained Mister Donut, mostly due to being close to existing Dunkin' Donuts stores. Their owners formed a cooperative to continue receiving bulk pricing on materials. As of May 2006, these stores rebranded as Donut Connection, serving the same items as Mister Donut.[31] Some locations of the Donut Connection partnership have retained the original fixtures of the original Mister Donut location, such as the outlet in Shakopee, Minnesota, which still has the orange motif and original Mister Donut price board.[citation needed]
Only one store located in 2720 Grovelin Street, Godfrey, Illinois continues to operate as Mister Donut.[32]
Canada
Mister Donut operations downsized in the late 1990s and the final surviving three in the Toronto, Ontario area closed quietly around or prior to June 2006.[citation needed]
In El Salvador, the menu includes some Salvadoran cuisine. As of 2014, there were 30 Mister Donut stores in the country,[33] with a few offering 24-hour service.[34] The rights are held by Adolfo Salume.[35]
Mister Donut specializes in coffee and doughnuts.[36] However, it also serves a wide variety of other foods, such as hamburgers and noodle soups.
As of 2004, the first Mister Donut shop opened in Taiwan featured "doughnuts in 50 different flavors every day. Each flavor comes with a label indicating the level of sweetness." The store also sold around 15 kinds of drinks and beverages.[25]
In 2007, Mister Donut attracted media attention in Japan, when it admitted it had used out-of-dated syrups in some of its drinks earlier that year.[21]
In addition to donuts, the chain also serves other foods like Dandan noodles
The company has created special donut lines for various events, for example creating soldier-themed doughnuts for National Doughnut Day on June 1 in Thailand, with funds benefitting military personnel in the country.[37]
In June 2013, Mister Donut in Thailand debuted the SushiDo, sushi-themed donuts created as a part of "a special sushi-themed menu." At the time, they had not been added to the menu in Japan or other countries.[38] Options included "sweet donut versions of ebi, tamago, maguro, salmon, with sugary frosting replacing raw fish."[39] For Halloween, in October 2013, Mister Donut debuted Hello Kitty jack-o’-lantern doughnuts in pumpkin or strawberry flavor, as well as other seasonal pumpkin flavored items, including pumpkin versions of their regular donut.[40]
As of 2014, the stores in El Salvador focused on a menu described as more "homey than foreign, offering national staples like pupusas and tamales alongside giant cream-filled doughnuts."[33]
There have also been items such as strawberry-glaze donuts.[8]
In April 2014, the company launched a croissant-style doughnut, which proved popular.[41]
On May 27, 2014, Mister Donut collaborated with the Japanese fast food franchise Mos Burger on the MOSDO!, a burger using "a spiral-shaped chorizo, lettuce and spicy chili sauce sandwiched between Mister Donut's French Cruller donut as the buns." The menu item was released at Mos Burger stores, while Mister Donut stores at the time were selling "Mos Burger's famous rice burger with sweet bean paste, sweet potato paste, and custard cream stuffing."[42]
In April 2015, Mister Donut released new items such as the "Brooklyn Merry-Go-Round, which uses both cookie and bagel dough." At the time, the company announced that it will "launch new key products quarterly while maintaining its standard menu."[41]
In 2015, Japan revealed a summer doughnut menu themed to Brooklyn, New York. Japan Times explained that the menu was "'Brooklyn themed' in the sense it combines several foodstuffs together into one, in the style of New York-born fusion treats such as the Cronut." Items included "berry or lemon doughnuts cut in half, with a layer of yogurt added to the middle, or a chocolate option with sugary cream in the center."[43]
As of May 2016, "some 80% of the menu at Mister Donut bakery and cafe is made up of coffee drinks and the rest is doughnuts."[28]
In Japan, current items as of July 2016 may include the old-fashioned doughnuts covered in chocolate or cinnamon flavored. There is also a "chocolate almond croissant muffin," a salty donut, a chocolate-covered churro, a financier donut," and "Japanese-style matcha kuromitsu stick."[44]
In Japan, Mister Donut's "signature" is the "Pon de Ringu, with its cartoon lion mascot."[8] The Japanese stores also sell the "pon de ring, Mister Donut’s signature item that’s made of a connected circle of dough balls." Pon de ring varieties include the pon de angel, which is cream-filled, and the pon de kokuto, or a pon de ring with brown sugar.[44]
In media
The 1998 album Good Humor by English indie pop band Saint Etienne features a song titled 'Mr. Donut' which was inspired by their visit to one of the chain's cafés while on tour in Japan. [45]
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.
A doughnut or donut is a type of pastry made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty vendors. Doughnut is the traditional spelling, while donut is the simplified version; the terms are used interchangeably.
Krispy Kreme, Inc. is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain.
Tim Hortons Inc., known colloquially as Tim's, Timmies, or Timmy's, is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain with headquarters in Toronto; it serves coffee, donuts, sandwiches, breakfast egg muffins and other fast-food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service restaurant chain, with 5,701 restaurants in 13 countries, as of September 2023.
Dunkin' Donuts LLC, trading as Dunkin' since 2019 in some markets, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by Bill Rosenberg (1916–2002) in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1950. The chain was acquired by Baskin-Robbins' holding company Allied Lyons in 1990; its acquisition of the Mister Donut chain and the conversion of that chain to Dunkin' Donuts facilitated the brand's growth in North America that year.
A cruller is a deep-fried pastry popular in parts of Europe and North America. Regarded as a form of cake doughnut in the latter, it is typically either made of a string of dough that is folded over and twisted twice to create its signature shape, or formed from a rectangle of dough with a cut in the center allowing it to be pulled over and through itself to produce distinctive twists in the sides of the pastry.
Lotteria is a South Korean company that operates a chain of fast food restaurants in East Asia, having opened its first restaurant in Tokyo in September 1972. Taking its name from its parent company, Lotte Corporation, it currently has franchises in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. The origin of the name is a combination of corporate names Lotte and Cafeteria.
Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. was an American restaurant holding company that ran three chains of fast-food restaurants: Dunkin' Donuts, Mister Donut, and Baskin-Robbins. It was headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts. It was acquired by Inspire Brands in 2020.
Harry Winokur was an American businessman. He created the Mister Donut chain of doughnut shops. The chain grew to include 550 shops before being bought out by the parent company of Dunkin' Donuts in 1990. He was awarded the Horatio Alger Award in 1965.
William Rosenberg was an American entrepreneur who founded the Dunkin' Donuts franchise in 1950 in Quincy, Massachusetts, one of the pioneers in name-brand franchising, originally named the "Open Kettle" doughnut shop when established in 1948. At the end of 2011, there were more than 10,000 outlets of the chain in 32 countries.
Donut King is an Australian multinational doughnut company and quick service restaurant. It specialises in Australian-style doughnuts and coffee. Signature menu items include hot cinnamon donuts, quakeshakes, thickshakes, milkshakes and barista-made DK Coffee Blend.
Krispy Kreme is an American multinational coffeehouse chain that specializes in doughnuts. As of 2024 it operates in 36 countries worldwide.
The dutchie is a Canadian doughnut popularized by the Tim Hortons chain. It is a square, yeast-lifted doughnut containing raisins that is coated with a sugary glaze. The dutchie was one of two original baked goods that had been available on Tim Hortons' doughnut menu since the chain's inception in 1964.
MTY Food Group Inc. is a Canadian franchisor and operator of numerous casual dining, fast casual, and quick service restaurants operating under more than 70 brand names, some of them through wholly owned subsidiaries. Headquartered in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent, Quebec, the number of outlets carrying MTY brands reached 5,500 in 2017. Stanley Ma is the group founder, President and CEO. MTY Food Group's brands include Thaï Express, Country Style, Groupe Valentine, Vanelli's, Extreme Pita, Cultures, La Crémière, Sushi Shop, Veggirama, Caferama, O'burger, Tiki Ming, Vie & Nam, Au Vieux Duluth Express, FranxSupreme, ChicknChick, Croissant Plus, Koya Japan, Kim Chi, Panini, Tandori, Tutti Frutti, Villa Madina Mediterranean Cuisine, Sukiyaki, Taco Time, Yogen Früz, and the Canadian branch of TCBY.
Jollibee Foods Corporation is a Philippine multinational company headquartered in Pasig, Metro Manila, Philippines. JFC is the owner of the fast food brand Jollibee.
Dawn Donuts is a doughnut chain begun in Jackson, Michigan. Although most of the chain was sold to Dunkin' Donuts in 1991, the bakery for the company's donuts remains operational, as do two locations in the Flint area.
Mochi donuts, also known as poi mochi, are a fusion pastry crossing traditional American-style doughnuts and Japanese mochi. The mochi donuts' "hybrid batter makes for a doughnut that is fluffy and moist, with a satisfying chew". An early iteration can be traced back to Hawaii in the early 1990s. Mochi donuts were popularized by Mister Donut's "Pon de Ring" in the early 2000s. Mochi donuts are commonly formed into a circular shape, consisting of eight small balls that are easy to pull apart. They are made out of glutinous rice flour or tapioca flour.
↑ Shimbun, Yomiuri (August 28, 2010). "[ONタイム・仕事師たち］ポン・デ・リング もちもち食感再開発" [[ON Time / Workers] Pon de Ring Redevelopment of Mochimochi Texture]. Osaka Evening Edition (in Japanese). p.6.
↑ "（ヒットの秘ミツ）発売以来一番人気のポン・デ・リング ミスタードーナツ 【大阪】" [(Hit's Secret Mitsu) The most popular Pon de Ring Mr. Donut [Osaka]]. The Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese) (Tokyo eveninged.). May 21, 2007. p.2.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
