Northern Colorado residents will have to wait a while longer before Shipley Do-Nuts can deliver a new shot of coffee and sweet pastries to the area. After two false starts, franchisee Lisa Golicher and franchise partner Wendy Saltz have expanded their search to land a destination to the old school Texas bakery chain. The Coloradoan reported that after two possible North College Avenue landing spots were shot down because of Fort Collins zoning restrictions, the pair are in the process of searching for a new Northern Colorado home.
“We have not found a Shipley location in Northern Colorado due to lack of drive-thru opportunities, (the) economics of a start-up lease, and build out costs as well as a partial ban on drive-thrus in Fort Collins,” Golicher wrote in a text to What Now Denver.
In 1936, Lawrence Shipley Sr. started making his “hot, fresh, handcrafted do-nuts” for five cents a pop on the wholesale market before leveling up to open the first Shipley store in Houston. Per Shipley’s history, the founder was pretty confident in his recipe and home cooking.
“When they bite into that hot do-nut, it will bring them back every time.”
After a relatively quiet yet successful existence under Shipley Sr., Lawrence Jr. worked to broaden his fathers’ vision, bringing the company across state lines and building more than 190 stores throughout Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
In the late 2010s, Shipley injected rocket fuel into its growth plan (per Franchising.com). Its “aggressive expansion” aims to grow from over 340 franchises today to more than 600 by the end of 2026.Still based primarily in the American South, Shipley has been moving west since debuting in Aurora in 2018. In 2019, the company added a second locale in Fountain, south of Colorado Springs.
Shipley is basing the success of its spread, in part, on its “cult-like” devotion to the brand and over 60 kinds of warm, fresh-made doughnuts, doughnut holes, beignets, and kolaches (a traditional Czech sweet pastry filled with jelly or pulped fruit). In addition to sweets, there’s also hot and cold coffee and coffee drinks. What would a doughnut be, after all, without a breakfast drink to dip it in?
Keep an eye on What Now for updates on Golicher and Saltz’s search for a Northern Colorado home.
