Krispy Kreme details plans to meet challenge from low-carb diets

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Krispy Kreme Doughnuts said Wednesday it will respond to financial losses from popular low-carb diets with new items including sugar-free doughnuts and iced drinks.

Chief executive Scott Livengood said at a shareholder meeting the company is assuming that diets leaving little room for deep-fried treats will remain popular for a long time.

“We’re not going to take anything for granted,” he said.

The meeting came a day after the company’s first quarterly loss since going public in 2000. Besides the $24.4 million loss for the first quarter, the company’s stock has fallen by about a third in the past month.

Livengood said the company’s doughnut shops and grocery displays will start selling a sugar-free doughnut, a chocolate-flavored glazed doughnut and mini rings that are 40 percent smaller. Supermarkets will start selling bags of Krispy Kreme coffee to brew at home and doughnut shops will also add crushed-ice drinks in raspberry, latte and double chocolate.

Although the company blamed trendy diets such as the Atkins and South Beach diets for its woes, critics have questioned the company’s rapid expansion and suggested the Krispy Kreme phenomenon has run its course.

Livengood said the tumble in Krispy Kreme’s stock price took company executives by surprise. “Frankly, it was beyond anything I could have imagined,” he said.