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Last Updated: 31st May, 2021

Want to buy into a company with over 30 years experience, an easily recognisable brand and low start-up costs?

A Donut King franchise can potentially be the successful business venture you’ve always wanted.

To get approved for a Donut King franchise loan, it helps to speak to a mortgage broker who can properly assess your situation.

How much can I borrow?

Depending on the strength of your case, you’re eligible for the following with some of our commercial lenders:

  • New or existing store: Borrow up to 50% of total business costs or 100% with an existing residential property as security.
  • Loan term: Typically 10 years or the length of the franchise agreement.
  • Loan term with property as security: 25 to 30 years (standard loan term).
  • Interest rate discounts available.
  • Low doc options not available.
  • You’ll generally need past experience and a business plan.

Which lender can help me?

It really depends on your overall situation including whether you have your own property to put towards the purchase and how much start-up capital you have to support the first few months of operations.

Please call us on 1300 889 743 or complete our free assessment form to find out if you’re eligible for a Donut King franchise loan.


How do I qualify?

There are no hard and fast rules with a franchise loan but it’s best to think of it like putting together a resume for a job: you have to highlight your strengths.

So, if you’re buying an existing Donut King franchise, a general requirement is that the business should be generating 1.75x earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).

As part of this process, the bank will be thoroughly checking the business financials of the existing franchisee.

If they’re in a good position, it’s probably because the store is benefitting from a prime location and was well-managed.

With the help of a business accountant, you’ll need to draft a business plan that shows working capital requirements and revenue forecasts for the franchise you want and show specifically how you intend to turn around a poor performing business.

Other requirements include:

  • 2 years personal and/or business financials including tax returns if you were previously running your own doughnut store or bakery.
  • Evidence of prior experience in running a doughnut store or a store in a similar industry in a managerial capacity (usually 2-3 years).

What if I came from a different industry?

If you’re coming from a different industry to run the Donut King franchise, this is usually accepted on a case by case basis.


Should I use my property as security?

Yes and, in fact, unless you have cash to put towards the purchase, you’ll need to use equity to complete the purchase as banks won’t lend more than 50% of the business value for a Donut King franchise.

If you have enough equity, you won’t even need to put anything towards the purchase other than your own working capital requirements (usually between $15,000 to $20,000 to support a business for the first 6 months).

Speak to us about refinancing your mortgage to access equity for a Donut King franchise loan by completing our free assessment form.


Why buy a Donut King franchise?

Although you should consider your own needs and what your interests are, Donut King is a strong franchise model because they’ve been operating for over 30 years.

They have a strong brand, particularly in a department store environment, and the operating costs are relatively low compared to some other franchise businesses.

How much can I expect to make?

It’s quite difficult and a little dangerous from a business point of view to rely on past sales of other Donut King franchises in order to determine how much revenue you stand to make.

There are so many factors that come into play including the location of the business in comparison to its nearest competitor.

The key to success is to doing your due diligence before buying the franchise and really understanding the location you’re operating in.

Costs

It generally costs about $280,000 to $380,000 to buy a Donut King franchise as an initial investment but there are other costs to consider:

  • Deposit bond for the store: $3,000 (varies depending on whether you’re in a shopping centre or not).
  • Ongoing franchise service fee: 7% of total sales.
  • Marketing fee: 3% of total sales.

Read the fine print

Already you can see that these ongoing costs can rack up very quickly so it’s important to read the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC) or franchise kit that comes when you enquire about a franchise.

Be sure to ask for this if you’re serious about buying the franchise and even consider going over the agreement with your solicitor and an accountant.

Learn more about a Donut King franchise at donutking.com.au.


What do I get with the franchise?

  • You can choose to buy either a kiosk, in-line or drive-through model and can even have some say about a potential operating site.
  • Kiosks are 25sqm with a 25sqm seating area.
  • You receive about 4-5 weeks training and then quarterly training workshops, sales training by business development managers (BDMs) and barista upskilling.
  • Operating hours are generally in-line with the shopping centre and/or surrounding businesses. That means you have a possibility of a decent work/life balance.

Donut King is actually a brand of Retail Food Group, Australia’s largest multi brand retail food franchise operator, so with that:

  • You can leverage Donut King’s buying power with suppliers and distributors and have more freed up cashflow than attempting to open your own independent doughnut shop.
  • You also get support from the BDMs to improve your cost of goods sold (COGS) ratio as well as reduce your labour costs.

We’re Donut King franchise loan specialists!

Our mortgage brokers are commercial loan experts and can help you find the right lender that will take a common sense approach to your Donut King franchise loan application.

Call us on 1300 889 743 or complete our free assessment form today so we can assess your situation and come back to you with an indicative funding approval.