Well-known doughnut chain Krispy Kreme was founded in North Carolina on this day in history, July 13, 1937.

Company founder Vernon Rudolph "bought a secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe from a New Orleans French chef," said the website for Krispy Kreme.

Rudolph set up a doughnut factory in present-day Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and began to sell doughnuts to area grocery stores, says the chain's website.

"The delicious scents of cooking doughnuts drifted into the streets, and passersby stopped to ask if they could buy hot doughnuts," said the website.

Rudolph created the first Krispy Kreme storefront by cutting a hole in the wall of his building, allowing people to buy a glazed doughnut right on the sidewalk.

Since then, "Krispy Kreme is one of the most beloved and well-known sweet treat brands in the world," said its website.

"Our iconic Original Glazed® doughnut is universally recognized for its hot-off-the-line, melt-in-your-mouth experience," they said.

Far removed from its beginnings as a literal hole in the wall in North Carolina, the company now has operations in more than 30 countries, said its website.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Krispy Kreme expanded throughout North Carolina and South Carolina, and further developed its doughnut-making procedures.

While each of the stores used the same recipe, the scratch-made doughnuts meant that there were inconsistencies between locations.

The solution to this problem? Automation.

"Krispy Kreme built a mix plant and developed a distribution system that delivered the perfect dry doughnuts mix to each Krispy Kreme store," said the company's website.

"Then Rudolph and his equipment engineers invented and built Krispy Kreme’s own doughnut making equipment. From the 1950s on, they focused on improving and automating the doughnut making process."

The company was sold to sale to Beatrice Foods Company in 1976, three years after the death of Rudolph.

In a somewhat unusual move, the company was bought back from Beatrice Foods in 1982 by "a small group of our early franchisees," said the company.

"A renewed focus on the hot doughnut experience became a priority for the company," it also said, along with expansion outside its roots in the southeastern United States.

Krispy Kreme opened its first store in New York City in 1996.

The city is now home to the Krispy Kreme Flagship store, which sells an exclusive "Big Apple Doughnut" with an apple cream filling.

Expansion continued, with its first California store opening in 1999 — and the company went public with an IPO in April 2000, said its website.

Krispy Kreme's first international store opened in December 2001 in Ontario, Canada, its website also noted.

In 2003, Krispy Kreme opened locations in Sydney, Australia, and London, England, its first locations outside of North America.