Billy Dorgan has spent most of his life making and selling donuts. And not just any donuts, but the hot “original glazed” donuts of the Krispy Kreme franchise. And with the help of son, Dorgan is expanding the Krispy Kreme empire into the Columbus market with a new store set to open Sept. 18.
The Columbus franchise will be located at 1725 Highway 45.
“I opened my first Krispy Kreme in Biloxi in 1967 after I came back from Vietnam,” Billy Dorgan said. “This was the first Krispy Kreme in Mississippi. We opened that store on Aug. 15, 1967. Twenty-five years later, we opened the Gulfport store, followed by a store in Ocean Springs and one in Hattiesburg.”
Dorgan said his passion for Krispy Kreme started in 1958 when he started working for family friend Joe McAleer in his Mobile store. The Dorgan-McAleer partnership flourished when Dorgan married McAleer’s daughter, Patty.
The Krispy Kreme family tradition will continue with a new 2,600 square feet store in the old Columbus Dunkin’ Donuts location. The store will be a “theater store,” meaning customers can watch the donuts being made through a window. It will also have a drive-through window. The store will have 22 seats inside, along with patio seating. The store will employ approximately 40 people.
“After studying several markets in the area, we were drawn to this area,” Billy Dorgan Jr. said. “The demographics are very pleasing here. We are excited about being in the Columbus market. We are very excited about working with the local people and using local vendors. Everyone in Columbus has been so accommodating — the mayor, the building officials — everyone. Brenda Lathan and Joe Max Higgins (of the Columbus-Lowndes Economic Development Link) were very helpful in getting us here.”
The Columbus store will contain the franchise’s signature line of donuts as well as its new line of coffee and coffee drinks. While the new coffee drinks are a new venture for the company, Dorgan said the biggest change he’s seen at Krispy Kreme was a system that was implemented more than 40 years ago.
“When I started making donuts in 1958, we made them by hand,” Dorgan said. “After Hurricane Camille in 1969, we installed automatic equipment in the Biloxi store. We changed the whole process in the late 1960s. We don’t roll dough anymore. We’ve improved the technology over the years because we want to make the best product in the world.”
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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