Katie and Ryan McNeil are thrilled about being owners of the new Duck Donuts franchise store in Kansas.
 
The fast-growing Duck Donuts franchise opens its first store in Kansas with a grand opening celebration on June 30, featuring its widely popular made-to-order donuts and a new store format designed to visually enhance the customer experience.

Owned by Katie and Ryan McNeil, the store is located at the Ranch Mart Shopping Center in Leawood, Kansas, an affluent suburb of Kansas City.

“It’s a great concept that we fell in love with immediately,” says Ryan McNeil, who discovered Duck Donuts with his wife while visiting family in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s a fresh, warm made-to-order donut, and it’s something we found with our family, our kids, everybody was so excited about because there is nothing really like it, especially in Kansas City right now.”

Kristin Kellum, public relations manager for Duck Donuts, says key design features of the new store format include a customer facing topping table, open ceiling plan with colorful lighting fixtures and fans, counters accented with cedar shake, and an updated coffee bar featuring a reclaimed oak wood accent wall.

Duck Donuts' new store concept is designed to visually enhance the customer experience.
 
Upon entering the store, customers are welcomed with the aroma of warm, light vanilla cake donuts. Customers can choose from a variety of topping combinations, including traditional favorites such as chocolate icing with sprinkles or more adventurous creations such as maple icing with bacon. Donuts are made to order in Belshaw Adamatic fryers.
The OBX donut breakfast sandwich

“We’re open seven days a week, 6:30 a.m. every morning,” McNeil says. “We find that this can be a treat throughout the entire day. You can wake up, have your donut. You can also have one of our OBX breakfast sandwiches (OBX is the abbreviation for the Outer Banks of North Carolina). It is absolutely fantastic. For an after-dinner treat, we also offer donut sundaes, so you can get a hot made-to-order donut and a scoop of vanilla or chocolate ice cream and then the toppings of your choice, just like you would for your donut.”

In addition to donuts, the Leawood location serves Duck Donuts’ signature coffee blends (Riptide Roast, Light House Blend and Sunset Pier Decaf), tea, espresso drinks, the OBX donut breakfast sandwich, donut retail sundaes and more.

The 1,790-square-foot store illustrates the franchise’s iconic beach theme and family friendly atmosphere.

Duck Donuts is growing at a rate of 30-40 new stores per year.
 
Duck Donuts was founded in 2006 by Russ DiGilio in Duck, North Carolina. By 2011, the company had expanded to four Outer Banks locations, and the donut business was so successful that DiGilio was approached by excited fans about franchise opportunities. Since that time, the chain has grown organically to 68 franchise locations with 130 additional contracts in 23 states.

Duck Donuts is growing at a rate of roughly 30 to 40 new stores per year.