How a Tech Overhaul Helped Push a Brand Toward 750 Stores
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Key Takeaways
- Technology can help the company scale. But loyalty is what makes people come back.
- Good decisions start by talking directly to frontline teams.
- Shipley shows how a legacy brand can honor its story while still adapting to the needs of modern operators and customers.
Kerry Leo did not join Shipley Do-Nuts to maintain the status quo. He joined to build what was missing.
As Vice President of Technology at Shipley Do-Nuts, Leo oversees the systems helping power the brand’s next era of growth. By the time he arrived in Houston in 2021, he understood what growing brands need and how outdated tools can slow momentum.
When Leo arrived, Shipley Do-Nuts was already a beloved brand with deep roots in Houston and a product people swore by. In his view, it was “the best donuts you’ll ever eat in the whole world.” If you ask him where to start, the answer comes quickly: the warm glazed donut.
What Shipley Do-Nuts lacked was a modern technology foundation built for the next era of growth. “There was very little tech there,” Leo said. “Really just cash registers and maybe QuickBooks.”
For someone with decades of business experience, Leo saw the technological gap as an opportunity rather than a weakness. It was a rare situation to build from a clean slate rather than untangle years of legacy systems. Instead of stacking new tools on old problems, he helped create an operation designed to scale. Some of his major moves included a cloud-first approach and mobile integrations. It was nothing crazy, just practical steps that helped streamline operations.
That matters because Shipley Do-Nuts is not standing still. The nearly 90-year-old brand is approaching 400 locations, with a couple of hundred more in the pipeline and a goal of reaching around 750 stores by 2030. Growth at that level requires more than great donuts. It requires systems that can keep pace with the business.
“The first thing I do is I love to go to the shop,” he said. “I like to talk to the franchisees. I like to talk to the cashiers and find out what their pain points are.”
His mindset helped Shipley Do-Nuts stop chasing shiny objects. Technology is there to remove friction. If ordering is clunky, fix it. If operators need visibility, build it. If guests want speed, make it easier.
The goal is simple: make Shipley Do-Nuts easier to run, easier to grow and easier to love.
A Houston institution
Shipley Do-Nuts has been around long enough to become more than a restaurant. It has become part of people’s lives.
For Leo, that connection is impossible to miss. “It’s very generational,” Leo said. From the start, he understood he was helping modernize a brand people already loved.
Founded in Houston in 1936, during the final years of the Great Depression, Shipley Do-Nuts began with Lawrence Shipley Sr.’s recipe for hot, hand-cut donuts sold for five cents a dozen. What started small grew into one of the South’s most recognizable brands, built on a simple promise: serve them fresh, serve them hot and give people a reason to come back.
Long before loyalty programs, apps and digital dashboards, people built routines around a box of donuts from Shipley Do-Nuts. Parents brought their kids and those kids grew up and brought their own children. A morning stop became a family tradition.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’m walking down the street and they go, Shipley. You work at Shipley.” Those moments matter because they reveal something bigger than brand awareness. They show habits passed from one generation to the next.
“Their mom and dad taking them there, and they’re taking their kids there now.” That is the advantage of a 90-year-old brand. Customers are not just buying a product. They are returning to a feeling.
The company’s roots still matter. The Shipley family remained part of the story for generations, helping grow the business while protecting what made it special. “It is really a great family,” Leo said. “A great product.”
In an industry where brands are constantly trying to look new, Shipley Do-Nuts benefits from knowing exactly who it is.
That identity starts with the product. “The warm glazed donut is the best thing.” Donuts made fresh daily. Warm glazed donuts that regulars talk about like a local legend. Kolaches that introduce newcomers to a regional favorite.
As Shipley Do-Nuts expands into new markets, the challenge is not becoming something different. It is bringing that same familiarity to more places. Technology can help the company scale. But loyalty is what makes people come back.
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Key Takeaways
- Technology can help th