Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s end doughnut collab

Two high profile brand collaborations have fallen apart this week - albeit the second, today, comes at the opposite end of the 'diabesity' spectrum.

McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme are ending their US partnership, it was revealed on Tuesday, after sales failed to meet the glazed-doughnut maker's expectations.

The ambitious multi-year rollout, which targeted a rollout across 14,000 McDonalds, ended only a few months after it began with only 2,400 locations stocking the breakfast-time doughnuts.

Krispy Kreme revealed that the collaboration failed because of a strain on its costs, but it was focused on expanding through high-volume retail points of distribution and capital-light international franchise growth.

"We had strong collaboration with Krispy Kreme and they delivered a great, high-quality product for us, and while the partnership met our expectations for McDonald’s and Owner/Operators, this needed to be a profitable business model for Krispy Kreme as well," McDonald's CMO Alyssa Buetikofer said.

Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth, meanwhile, added: "efforts to bring our costs in line with unit demand were unsuccessful, making the partnership unsustainable for us.”

Krispy Kreme sales from McDonalds will now cease on 2 July.

A day ago, meanwhile, a weight loss drug partnership between Novo Nordisk and health ecommerce firm Hims & Hers came to a premature and abrupt end.