Portland's Voodoo Doughnut plans massive Asian expansion

voodoodoughnut

Voodoo Doughnut will be expanding internationally in 2015.

(Brian Feulner/The Oregonian)

Voodoo Doughnut, Portland's Golden Gate Bridge, will be expanding to Japan and Taiwan, as well as opening a fifth location domestically, in 2015.

All it took was an airplane and a box of doughnuts.

"That was one of the things that brought us to them [taking boxes back on the airplane]," Kenneth "Cat Daddy" Pogson, co-owner of Voodoo Doughnut, said. "We get calls all the time from all over the world and Asia was calling a lot."

They plan to open a minimum of 12 - 20 stores in both Japan and Taiwan over the next three years, with their flagship locations opening in Tokyo and Taipei around June 2015.

All the stores will fry their fritters in-house and be able to innovate their own varieties, which could include doughnuts made with rice flour and shaped like nigiri or sushi.

In addition to their global expansion, Voodoo Doughnut is also opening a fifth brick and mortar location somewhere in the U.S. They won't announce exactly where it will open -- only that it will be the farthest east location -- but it will open around June 2015, as well.

Locally, Voodoo has partnered with Pendleton Woolen Mills to release individually numbered, limited edition blankets -- releasing only 250 of each design -- as well as continuing their partnership with Rogue Ales.

Rogue Ales recently released bacon maple vodka, in addition to their four Voodoo Doughnut ales.

Their newest release is a bacon maple vodka. Rogue also makes four Voodoo Doughnut beers -- bacon maple ale, chocolate, peanut butter and banana ale, lemon chiffon crueller and pretzel, raspberry and chocolate ale -- that have sold more than a million bottles worldwide.

Voodoo Doughnut opened their first location outside of Oregon in Denver in Dec. 2013. They have three brick and mortars -- two in Portland and one in Eugene -- in Oregon, as well as a cart in the Cartlandia pod on Southeast 82nd Avenue.

-- Samantha Bakall  

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