Aachen Enes Seker scurries through his new office in the north of Aachen. There are still packed televisions there, there a brand new grand piano and an old record player in the back corner of the reception area. There is still little to suggest that the office of what is probably the fastest growing franchise company in Germany is being built here. We’re talking about Royal Donuts, a chain that is conquering the inner cities of Europe with sweet calorie bombs.
In just three and a half years, Seker has built his donut empire from scratch. He has now granted franchise licenses in ten European countries. At least one new store opens every week, so far there are around 300.
It’s an incredible expansion. Royal Donuts has long overtaken its main American competitor Dunkin’ Donuts with 60 German branches. The idea behind the business is simple: the more creative the donuts, the better – counting calories is forbidden. That is the motto of the German founder with Turkish roots, who still develops most of the recipes himself.
He is regularly in the kitchen at home to “create” new donuts, as he says. His creations are called “Royal Bombs” or “Crossnuts”. Seker’s latest invention: a dough that shimmers even pinker than the pink company logo. When choosing the color, he was inspired by the “Simpsons”. “I’ve always been a fan of Homer’s pink donut,” says Seker. And so it was immediately clear to him that his shops had to look like this too.
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Just four years ago, the man from Aachen worked in a Vodafone shop. There he was entrusted with the branch management. A formative experience. Because the network operator gives him a free hand, he gets to know self-employment. Seker quickly realizes that he wants to start his own company. “I loved donuts so much I went to a donut shop,” he recalls.
Fitness influencers are lining up outside the store
At the end of 2018, he borrowed 10,000 euros from his family and opened his first Royal Donuts shop in the Sülz district of Cologne. Pretty bad location, no walk in customers, not even neighboring shops.
Even his closest friends don’t initially believe in success, but his innovative donuts quickly become a celebrity. When the international fitness fair takes place in Cologne, a line hundreds of meters long suddenly forms in front of his small shop. Fitness influencers had seen the creations on Instagram – and decided without further ado to do their “cheat day”, i.e. their diet-free day, at Royal Donuts. Some customers come all the way from Hamburg. “That’s when I realized once again that things could get big,” says Seker.
After just six months, the young entrepreneur decides to expand. The motto: Rapid growth and building a brand before others copy the concept. Because the married German-Turk wants to stay in Aachen and withdraw from the operative business, he issues franchise licenses to independent entrepreneurs.
Sekers GmbH also collects a fixed monthly marketing fee. The Aachen-based company also sells donuts and sweets to its partners. According to its own statements, the Aachen-based company is collecting a mid-seven-digit sum in the current financial year.
The concept works. With almost every new opening, long queues form in front of the pink shops. At times, Seker receives up to 5,000 franchise inquiries per month. Almost all licenses have now been issued in Germany, reports Seker. But the donuts are also attracting international interest. In addition to the expansion to half of Europe, the Middle East will soon be on the way.
Royal Donuts has 240,000 followers on the Instagram channel
Even Hermann Riedl is amazed at such rapid growth. He advises franchise companies on their strategic direction and has been in the business for 25 years. He has rarely seen such rapid growth of a franchise brand.
However, this growth also harbors risks, Riedl points out. “It is very difficult to guarantee the quality of the products when the business model is expanding so quickly,” says Riedl. In addition, it is almost impossible to carry out comprehensive location analyzes in such a short time. The entrepreneurial risk is borne by the franchisee. But if a shop goes bankrupt, it damages the entire brand, according to the management consultant.
“However, the queues in front of his shops prove him right,” says Riedl. The donuts differ from other sweet pastries in their creative design – a clear unique selling point, according to Riedl. In addition, there is a coherent marketing concept that perfectly showcases the donuts.
>> Read here: Which brands have the most loyal customers – and how they do it.
Marketing is still a top priority at Royal Donuts. Instagram content, product design, even training videos for the franchises: Seker has a hand in everything and mostly stands in front of the camera himself. He looks proudly at the around 240,000 followers of the Royal Donuts Instagram channel. That’s about three times more subscribers than the German Starbucks channel has.
Marketing strategy is a gut decision of the founder
“Royal Donuts understood the Instagram game,” says Thomas Besmer, social media consultant at Hutter Consult. In his view, Royal Donuts’ success story has several factors. The first is the presentation of the donuts. The company mixes classic donuts with other popular products such as Oreo biscuits or Kinder Buenos.
Added to this are the eye-catching pastel shades. “This creates small ‘works of art’ that are anything but ordinary and can therefore be optimally staged on Instagram,” analyzes Besmer.
What Besmer describes as a sophisticated marketing strategy is actually the result of some gut decisions by the founder. In addition to his company account, Seker also markets himself on the platform. For his Instagram followers, he even wants to learn to play the piano on his brand new piano. “I already have really good content in mind,” says Seker. He himself spends hours every day on Instagram. His average screen time? About nine and a half hours a day.
With all the work, Seker hardly has time for hobbies. There’s just one thing the young entrepreneur can’t take away from him: “I like sweets for my life,” he reports. This is another reason why Seker works with a personal coach. The donuts, which can weigh up to 800 calories, have to be burned off somehow. By the way: His surname Seker means “sugar” when translated into German.
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