Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth said customers drive an average of 10 miles to retrieve hot donuts fresh off the make line at one of the brand’s roughly 400 hot light theater locations. At the Excalibur Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, the chain is testing whether it can bring its signature doughnut spectacle closer to customers with a shop roughly a third the size.
The Hot Light Express prototype can fit within 1,000 to 1,500 square feet.
The Hot Light Express prototype, Charlesworth told Food On Demand, could fit in 1,000 to 1,500 square feet, compared with about 4,000 to 4,500 for a traditional shop that not only sells donuts on site but also provides the products for daily deliveries to other outlets. If the location’s glowing red “Hot Now” sign and distinct doughnut aroma draw customers to the casino food court, the format could fit in places like transit hubs, inline malls and standalone drive-thrus. Krispy Kreme has no systemwide rollout planned
“[Customers] don’t always demand the hot donut that we’re famous for, but that is the pinnacle of the Krispy Kreme experience,” Charlesworth said. “It’s the most differentiated thing we do, so we always want to make the hot donuts available where we can.”
The North Carolina-based brand strives to bring at least one hot light theater to “every major city around the world,” Charlesworth said, adding that Brazil’s most populous city, São Paulo, welcomed its third such location on November 10.
The franchisee-operated prototype joins three full-size hot light theaters in the Las Vegas area, all off the Strip.
“Particularly in our international markets where we have franchisees, I think that’s going to be really interesting as they see it as an opportunity to differentiate with the hot donut,” Charlesworth said. “In the U.S., it could well play an important role as well. But it’s too early to lay out a rollout plan because we’re very disciplined. We want to make sure that the quality is awesome, that the experience for our customers is great and that the economics work. But it looks very promising.”
Krispy Kreme boasts about 400 full-size hot light theater locations.
As of late 2025, the brand reported 2,125 total shops globally, with about 19 percent being hot light theater units. The company refers to locations without that feature as fresh shops, which require an average capital investment of $100,000 to $1 million, compared to traditional Hot Light Theater units’ $2 million to $5 million range.
“There is a lot going on,” Charlesworth said of full-size hot light theater locations. “It’s very exciting, and they do generate significantly more revenue around bigger sites. So, I would say the [‘Hot Now’] light and the hot donut is one of the factors that explains why a hot light theater can do significant volumes, significantly more than the fresh [shops].”
Krispy Kreme also boasts more than 13,000 fresh delivery locations, including grocery stores, club wholesalers, convenience stores and fast-casual restaurants that receive donuts from local hub locations.
Krispy Kreme opened 98 shops globally in the first three quarters of 2026, nearly all franchised, while company capital spending fell 64.6 percent year over year, according to the company’s November 5 third-quarter financial results.
