Top End’s Krispy Kreme dream in limbo as takeover bid stalls

Five years after it was first announced, the Territory is still eagerly awaiting its own Krispy Kreme factory store. Read where it’s up to.

Doughnut enthusiasts remain in the dark about plans to build a Krispy Kreme factory and retail outlet in Palmerston.

The drawn-out saga around the popular confectionary’s entry into the Territory appears no closer to a resolution as even the company’s corporate spokesman claims not to know what’s going on.

In February, blood sugar levels across the Top End soared when the NT News reported work at the Krispy Kreme site at Gateway shopping centre had begun.

But containment fences and earthmoving equipment were removed about the same time as a corporate takeover was announced of OTR, Krispy Kreme’s South Australian and NT parent company.

The Top End is still waiting for Krispy Kreme.

In April, Viva Energy announced it had reached agreement with Peregrine Corporation to buy OTR for $1.15bn but the deal has been delayed by a review by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Sources close to Gateway shopping centre said it was some time after that clearing work at the proposed doughnut factory ground to a halt.

It is now five years since the NT News first reported OTR had plans to build a Krispy Kreme factory and outlet at the Gateway shopping centre.

In April 2021 the popular US doughnut-maker submitted a development application to build a drive-through Krispy Kreme outlet at Gateway attached to a new service station and car wash on the corner of Roystonea Ave and Gateway Road in Yarrawonga.

As well as 35 carparking spaces, it will also have a drive-through lane with space for 10 vehicles.

A month later a sign was erected on site crowing Krispy Kreme was coming, only for this to be removed soon after when OTR management objected to its installation.

The Development Consent Authority ordered the company to amend its application to address issues around Krispy Kreme’s drive-through component but Covid-19 kicked in and plans were put on hold until the flurry of bulldozer activity in February this year.

Contacted for comment, Gateway management said the future of the project was entirely with Krispy Kreme’s management.

A spokesman for OTR said there was “no update” at this stage.

“If anything changes, I will let you know first,” the spokesman said.

Originally published as Top End’s Krispy Kreme dream in limbo as takeover bid stalls