Another doughnut shop to FoCo, and likely to Loveland

FORT COLLINS — A Shipley Do-Nuts is in early planning for the city of Fort Collins, with two more to follow in the area. A conceptual and preliminary design review meeting is set for Thursday at 11:15 a.m.

A proposed Krispy Kreme location also began moving through city planning this week.

Franchisee Lisa Golicher is proposing the 1,700-square-foot structure with a drive-through facing Lemay Avenue from the western part of a parking lot at Clearwater Church. The property, zoned for low-density residential, ultimately needs a city council vote, a city planning summary said.

The drive-through will be a challenge, she acknowledged, “and we want to work with the community” to design and engineer a layout that works for neighborhoods to the south. Nothing is set yet, but one option Golicher’s considering is that the entrance to the parcel, currently conceived as being leased from the church, would be on the northern side of the parking lot about a hundred yards from homes.

To the west of the site at 2700 S. Lemay Ave. is Scotch Pines Village Shopping Center, which has a Sprouts Farmers Market, a Starbucks, and several other retailers. To the north is a large lawn adjacent to the church buildings, and to the east is the rest of the parking lot.

Other elements include bringing doughnuts to events via food truck and working with Fort Collins charity groups. The chain, for instance, has used “edible QR codes” on doughnuts to collect donations for groups.

Setting sites

Golicher’s territory with Shipley runs roughly speaking down U.S. Highway 287 from Wellington to Berthoud, and includes Loveland, Fort Collins, Timnath and Windsor. She’s looked at 65 sites so far, including two possible locations in Loveland.

“We will be building at least three over the next three years,” she said, with the first ideally ready in the spring and additional locations yearly for the next two. She’s negotiating or has signed letters of intent, she said, “on multiple locations.”

Golicher spent 10 years in corporate telecom and started and owned a 5,000-square-foot center for pets in Tampa, Florida: veterinarian, dog daycare and canine kennel, and a pet bakery. She’s floated the idea with city staff for a dog park or exercise area that could be incorporated into the church’s lawn.

“We were gonna cancel Thursday,” she said, “but planners said ‘don’t cancel’” until they explore what’s possible.

“We’re not In-N-Out,” she said, noting the drive-thru is not likely to stack-up and that in addition to their entrance aligning with the area, the site is likely to include a patio.

“We like people to come in, smell the doughnuts,” she said.

Sweet, savory

“I just cold-called the church,” when she started to think of how the project could work in its parking lot. “Their pastor is from Texas and knows the brand,” she said. “Texans love their Shipley.”

She co-owns rights to the three locations with Wendy Saltz, a “friend, tennis partner and fellow foodie.”

Golicher said Shipley locations sell coffee and 60 styles of handmade doughnuts and kolaches, the latter a Czech-type of savory pastry, usually filled with fruit or cheese. Some locations have smoothies.

She said Shipley looks for 10,000 people living within two miles of each location, and 20,000 to 30,000 vehicle trips passing it daily. Locations must be open at least 12 hours a day, and she’s considering 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., with sweet doughnuts in the morning and the savory kolaches for lunch or dinner.

Franchising sites peg its metrics — fees, net worth, start-up costs — below bigger chains with larger locations such as Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme, in-line with Shipley’s smaller sites and regional reach. Average unit volumes also trend lower at about $400,000.

The chain has about 300 locations in nine states, with two in Colorado, in Aurora and Fountain. Most are franchised. A single unit franchise fee is $40,000 with royalties at 5%. Startup costs excluding real estate are $400,000 to $770,000 according to Entrepreneur Magazine, which ranked Shipley No. 157 on its 2020 Franchise 500; it wasn’t ranked this year.

Houston-based Shipley was founded in 1936. Austin-based private equity firm Peak Rock Capital bought the company in January. Peak Rock invests $30 million to $500 million to buy controlling stakes in firms with enterprise values of $50 million to $1.5 billion, its website said.

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