DONUT COUNTRY
Donut Country's purpose is to make people smile while selling comfort food with a hometown feel. In 1987 Rick and Carol Egles moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee and opened Donut Country at 1311 Memorial Blvd. Rick found a doughnut maker in Florida and recruited him back to Tennessee to be Donut Country's head baker. That baker is named James Barry, and he has continued as Donut Country's head baker for the last 40 years. Donut Country's main location has always been on Murfreesboro's Memorial Boulevard. Donut Country opened a second location on Middle Tennessee Boulevard shortly after the original location opened. In April of 2017 the Egles sold the business to their daughter Kristy and her husband Bo Davis.
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Each night the bake staff arrives at the original Donut Country location around 7 p.m. to begin the bake for the next day. The bake staff begins its night by combining doughnut mix, water and yeast in their industrial mixer for the first batch of yeast doughnuts. While that is mixing, the bakers begin mixing the dough for their variety of cake doughnuts and start hand cutting each one. Another baker then begins to hand cut and form the apple fritters. Around 11 p.m. all cake doughnuts and apple fritters are fried and left on racks to cool. At 11 p.m. the dough for the first batch of yeast doughnuts is loafed, cut, put into the proof box which provides humidity for them to rise and then fried. This same process continues throughout the night. On any given night the bakers will mix, loaf, cut and then fry up to seven batches of yeast doughnuts. Each batch produces approximately 60-65 dozen doughnuts. As the yeast doughnuts are fried, they are then glazed and put on a rack to cool. Another baker begins sorting, icing and decorating the yeast doughnuts. The prettiest yeast doughnuts are put into separate racks to be sold as plain glazed. Any yeast doughnuts with imperfections are then sorted to be iced in chocolate, strawberry or buttercream. Around 3 a.m. the bakers begin their last batch of yeast dough for the night that is used for making cinnamon rolls. Each cinnamon roll is hand rolled and fried. Around 4 a.m. the store's daytime employees arrive and a portion of the doughnuts and pastries made that night are transported to Donut Country's second location.
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Donut Country's audience is the public in Murfreesboro and surrounding cities. Over the years they have garnered quite a fan-base. Many locals and new customers enjoy sitting in the lobby at night and watching the bakers at work. The bakers play a variety of music while working that customers enjoy listening to while sitting to eat their fresh, hot doughnuts. A lot of their customer base is made up of longtime Donut Country lovers. In the early morning hours anywhere from 15 to 20 different regular customers will make their daily shop at Donut Country for coffee, doughnuts and conversation. Most of these regular customers have been patronizing Donut Country for over 20 years.
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Donut Country prides itself on quality in providing fresh, handmade doughnuts to new and loyal customers. The store regularly offers a discounted price for a dozen doughnuts, offers a discount to MTSU students and first responders and donates doughnuts to various organizations. They advertise mainly on Facebook and Instagram, but their location on the busy Memorial Boulevard also aids in spreading the word about all they have to offer. Their marque sign at the front of the building can be seen by passerby, and always has a funny or witty joke about doughnuts. Donut Country also communicates to the public by sponsoring many events and organizations and really being involved in the community. Organizations that are looking to fundraise can purchase Donut Country's doughnuts at a discounted rate, and then may resell them to others.
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SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
Unlike other doughnut shops, Donut Country's doughnuts are handmade fresh every day with no preservatives. The store is also peanut allergy friendly. Being a staple in the community for so long has made Donut Country a household name in Murfreesboro. The store is community oriented and mainly focused on the quality of it's products, and the customer's experience as a whole. It's location on the busy Memorial Boulevard also aids in the stores customer traffic.
WEAKNESSES
The store's location does make navigating the small parking lot during busy hours very difficult. The store is over 40 years old, and the amount of product it puts out each year only increases, making it difficult to produce and store such a high amount of doughnuts each day in a very small location. The bake staff could benefit from a larger, updated kitchen. Baking doughnuts is a trade with a science behind it. No one can just walk in off the street, work a couple nights and just know how to make doughnuts. Baking requires extensive, very involved training in order to master the art. Because the doughnuts are made at night to be sold during the day, these hours make it difficult to find bake staff that is willing to work hard, long hours at night. The doughnuts are only made at night, so more often than not the store has very busy days and will run out of product to sell. This can result in losing customers when they come to the store to buy doughnuts and it is sold out.
OPPORTUNITIES
A growing community means more chances to increase their customer base. They can work on enhancing the customer experience by producing more doughnuts so they will never have to turn customers away. Giving back to the community.
THREATS
Other locally owned doughnut shops. Most recent threat would be the opening of Krispy Kreme last year.