Shipley Do-Nuts Changes Ownership

Levine Leichtman Capital Partners has acquired Shipley Do-Nuts, a doughnut and kolache brand with more than 375 locations across 14 states. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Shipley Do-Nuts will remain at its Houston headquarters and will keep its existing executive team led by CEO Flynn Dekker.

“We are excited to partner with Flynn and the outstanding Shipley management team, who have been executing on a successful growth strategy,” says Matthew Frankel, managing partner of LLCP, in a release. “Together, we see a tremendous opportunity to build on this foundation by expanding unit count even further to capture the substantial whitespace and driving strong same-store sales growth.”

LLCP acquired Shipley from Peak Rock Capital, which picked up the brand from the third generation of the founding family. In its announcement, Peak Rock says it helped Shipley expand in multiple geographies, develop new products, launch a marketing cooperative with franchisees, and develop a new corporate headquarters and R&D lab. Same store sales grew for 18 consecutive quarters and the brand set records for new store growth.

“Shipley is growing faster than ever in its history, and partnering with LLCP presents an outstanding opportunity for Shipley to accelerate our growth and bring the world’s greatest donut to an even wider audience,” Dekker says.