Starting July 2, Krispy Kreme doughnuts will no longer be available at McDonald’s as the donut chain and fast food giant announced an end to their brief partnership.

In a press release Tuesday, Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth said that “ultimately, efforts to bring our costs in line with unit demand were unsuccessful, making the partnership unsustainable for us.”

The partnership began with a trial run in southern Indiana and Kentucky in 2022, with certain doughnut varieties being sold at over 2,000 McDonald’s locations nationwide by the end of 2024. Last month, however, further expansion of doughnut distribution was paused.

At the time of the pause, Mr. Charlesworth said that Krispy Kreme planned to offer its doughnuts at all U.S. McDonald’s locations by the end of 2026.

Krispy Kreme said it still plans to expand consumer access to its doughnuts by selling them at “high-volume retail points of distribution” in the U.S.

The doughnut chain also said that, while breakfast is important to McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme doughnuts were “a small, non-material part” of the fast food giant’s breakfast business.

“We had strong collaboration with Krispy Kreme and they delivered a great, high-quality product for us,” McDonald’s USA Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer Alyssa Buetikofer said, adding that while the company and franchisees were pleased “this needed to be a profitable business model for Krispy Kreme as well.”

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.