If you grew up in Texas, you already know exactly what Shipley Donuts is. You know the hexagon-shaped glazed donut, the kolaches, and the specific kind of early morning loyalty the chain inspires in people who live near one. For everyone in Michigan, that experience is finally on its way.
Shipley Donuts has signed a 15-unit franchise agreement with Hole Lotta Dough, LLC, officially marking the Houston-born chain’s first move into the state. The locations will be spread across Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne counties in Metro Detroit, with the first shop targeted to open in late Q1 2027.
The deal is set up as a phased rollout: three new shops per year over a five-year period until all 15 are open and running. It’s a slow build, but one that suggests the franchisee is planning for the long game rather than rushing to plant a flag and figure out the rest later.
The Person Behind the Deal
The franchise agreement is being led by Nasir Siddiqui, who spent more than 12 years living in Michigan after growing up in Texas, where Shipley was a regular part of his childhood. That personal history isn’t just a feel-good detail. It explains the confidence behind a 15-unit commitment in a market that has never had a single Shipley location. Siddiqui told What Now Detroit that his team is already working with Shipley’s real estate team and local real estate partners to lock down the first site, though nothing has been finalized yet.
What Michigan Is Actually Getting
For the unfamiliar, Shipley Donuts is not trying to be a trendy donut shop. There are no cereal toppings, no $6 artisan rings with a backstory. What the chain does is fresher and more straightforward than that.
Bakers show up at 3 a.m. every morning to make the first batch from scratch. The signature item is a glazed donut cut into a hexagon rather than a circle, a small distinction that regulars will tell you actually matters for the glaze-to-dough ratio. Beyond that, the menu runs more than 40 varieties of handmade donuts alongside kolaches, the Czech-Texan pastry that Shipley helped popularize outside of Texas by stuffing it with sausage, cheese, or fruit fillings.
It’s the kind of menu built around repetition and reliability rather than novelty, which is exactly why the chain has kept a loyal following for 90 years.
A Brand That Has Been Building Momentum
This Michigan deal didn’t come out of nowhere. Shipley, which was founded in Houston in 1936 and now operates more than 390 locations across 13 states, has been expanding steadily into the Midwest. The chain recently signed a three-unit agreement to enter Ohio through Cincinnati, and Michigan is the next step in that push north.
The brand has also been showing up on industry lists that track fast-casual growth. It ranked on the Fast Casual Top 100 Movers & Shakers list for the third year in a row in 2026, and landed on the Technomic Top 500 Chain Restaurants list for the second consecutive year. Those rankings don’t mean much to the average donut buyer, but they do suggest that the chain’s growth is being taken seriously at an industry level.
What the Timeline Looks Like
The first Metro Detroit location is being targeted for late Q1 2027, which puts it somewhere around March. The site hasn’t been publicly confirmed yet, so it’s worth keeping an eye on Shipley’s announcements over the coming months if you’re in Oakland, Macomb, or Wayne County and want to know which neighborhood is getting the first shop.
From there, the plan is three new locations per year, which means Metro Detroit should have a full footprint of 15 Shipley shops somewhere around 2031.
It’s a slower rollout than some chains attempt when entering a new market, but for a brand that built its reputation on showing up fresh at 3 a.m. every day for nine decades, patience appears to be something they’ve figured out.
