When Shipley Donuts rolled out its first digital platform designed specifically for catering orders in July, the nearly 400-unit chain viewed the move as more than just a new sales channel. CEO Flynn Dekker said the initiative formalized catering as a strategic growth channel for the Houston-based brand.
Dekker said the new Olo-powered catering program represents an investment in Shipley’s infrastructure to serve larger groups, opening the door to new occasions and customers, as well as scalable growth.
Flynn Dekker is the CEO at Shipley Donuts.
“From a growth perspective, it gives us the infrastructure to more intentionally serve high-value occasions like corporate catering, office meetings, school events and community gatherings,” Dekker said of the new catering program in an emailed statement to Food On Demand. “It expands our ability to serve B2B and large-order customers with an experience built specifically around their needs, while creating a scalable foundation for Shipley to grow catering sales across the system.”
Shipley’s recently released first-party catering platform provides a streamlined way for customers to explore group options, customize items and place large orders in advance. Dekker said the digital offering also provides franchisees with a more efficient way to receive and fulfill catering orders.
“We are not prioritizing one type of guest over another,” Dekker said. “Catering isn’t a replacement for how guests already order from Shipley; it’s a new front door built for a different kind of visit. Just as our online ordering makes it easy for one person or one family to get their morning favorites, our catering platform gives office managers, event planners, schools, corporate events and businesses feeding large groups a much stronger solution built for their needs.”
When creating the catering menu, Dekker said Shipley leadership did not simply ask, “How do we make our existing menu bigger?” but also, “What actually works better when you are feeding a group?”
Through the partnership with Olo, Shipley can apply tax-exempt permissions to existing customers or create accounts with those settings already assigned. Dekker said the updated approach to catering was informed by behavior observed across the brand’s digital channels and broader guest trends.
“When customers are ordering for a group, convenience and confidence become especially important,” Dekker said. “They want to know what to order, how much they need, when it will be ready and that the experience will be reliable.”
That thesis is reflected in the new catering menu, which prioritizes convenience, portability, variety, shareability and ease of serving, Dekker said. Curated donut and kolache bundles take some of the guesswork out of building large orders item by item. The same strategy extends to donut hole trays, coffee-to-go boxes and mini kolaches.
In partnership with Olo, Shipley Donuts launched out a digital catering program systemwide July 9.
“We originally introduced them to the system in March 2025, and they quickly demonstrated how well the format could solve a catering need,” Dekker said of the mini kolaches now available on the catering menu. “We had even observed people in our own office cutting our full-size kolaches in half when sharing them with a group. That was a simple but meaningful consumer behavior that reinforced the opportunity for a smaller, bite-sized format that is easier to serve, share, and enjoy at meetings and events.”
For Shipley, the catering platform continues a broader strategy of removing hurdles from digital ordering channels. Last November, the donut chain tapped restaurant technology company Saivory to implement artificial intelligence in its online ordering experience.
“The AI-powered ordering assistant introduced last year helps guests navigate Shipley’s full variety with confidence, turning what could be a complex box-building decision into an easy, guided experience with helpful suggestions along the way,” Dekker said. “Catering builds directly on that foundation, extending the same guided, digital-first philosophy to an entirely new occasion: the large-volume, advance, group order. It’s the next chapter in Shipley’s digital ecosystem, not a separate story.”
