Houston — Shipley Do-Nuts, the iconic Houston-born do-nut shop brand, celebrated its 85th anniversary with a groundbreaking on Oct. 28 for its new 60,000-square-foot corporate headquarters at Cullen and Gulf Freeway in Houston. The site is well-known to Houstonians as the location of the old Finger Furniture flagship showroom and, before that, Buff Stadium, home to minor league baseball’s Houston Buffalos from 1928-1961.
The state-of-the-art facility, slated to open in the last quarter of 2022, will feature a full working flagship Shipley Do-Nut shop with an interior drive-thru going right through the building that will provide a unique look behind the scenes into the making of “The World’s Greatest Do-Nut.” The headquarters will be named the L.W. “Bud” Shipley Jr. Support Center, after founder Lawrence Shipley’s son, who grew the brand from a local family business to a chain of nearly 200 locations.
“Bud Shipley was the visionary behind the company’s initial growth, and it’s only fitting that our new support center, which we’re building to accommodate our growing company, be named after him,” says CEO Clifton Rutledge. “I can think of no better way to celebrate our birthday than by breaking ground on our headquarters for our next 85 years.”
The two-story building will be home to the company’s new state-of-the-art yeast do-nut mix manufacturing facility and a do-nut innovation center, plus office space for about 130 people. It will replace Shipley’s longtime Houston headquarters on North Main Street, which the company has occupied for more than 40 years and has since outgrown, with some employees now working from several additional buildings in the area. Shipley has added some 60 corporate employees in the past 2 years.
The fast-growing brand, now with more than 330 locations, has franchise commitments in place to open an additional 300 over the next 5 years in Texas, and across the Southeast. It is actively recruiting additional franchisees in new and existing markets, with a focus on increasing its presence in Colorado and Oklahoma. Houston-based Lovett Commercial is the project developer for the L.W. “Bud” Shipley Jr. Support Center, and Bill Higbie is the builder.
Founded in 1936, Houston-based Shipley Do-Nuts is a leading do-nut restaurant franchisor and manufacturer of specialty food products. Shipley franchises over 300 restaurants across nine states. For more information, visit www.shipleydonuts.com/franchise.
SOURCE: Shipley Do-Nuts