Spudnut Shops were American franchised stores selling donuts made with potato flour called Spudnuts. The parent company no longer exists, but independent stores remain. The original recipe is based on a folk recipe that traces back to Germany. History After brothers Al and Bob Pelton of Salt Lake City ate potato-based doughnuts in Germany, they tried a number of things, from wheat dough that was flavored with potato water to using mashed potatoes, before creating a dry potato mix that not only worked for them but made it possible to franchise the concept. They coined the word "spudnut", and went into business in 1940. In 1946, the company began establishing a nationwide chain of franchised Spudnut Shops. In 1948, one new franchisee opened a store after paying $50 (approx. $450 in 2010 dollars) plus the cost of 100 sacks of spudnut flour. By 1952, when the Peltons were on the cover of the April 1952 edition of Mechanix Illustrated (“Their Potatoes Make Dough”), a franchise cost $1,750, plus equipment and other costs, for an initial investment of about $5,000 (approx. $40,000 in 2010 dollars). By 1948, over 200 Spudnut Shops had sprung up across the USA. Spudnuts were advertised widely, with the slogan "Coast to coast... Alaska to Mexico". The cartoon character "Mr. Spudnut" frequently appeared in advertisements, restaurants, and even in parades. By mid-1949, the number was over 225, in 31 states. By 1954, there were more than 300 shops in 38 states. In 1964, Spudnut shops were selling about 400,000 spudnut doughnuts per day. That year, the company announced that it had successfully designed a process of flash freezing its dough, and announced that it planned to increase its distribution centers. At that time, there were six metropolitan franchise dealers who made fresh dough for distribution to shops that did not want to make their own dough from the dry mix sold by the company. In 1968, the Pelton brothers retired, selling their company, Spudnut Industries Inc., to National Oven Products, Inc., of Washington state, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pace Industries, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The annual sales of Spudnut Industries was $2 million. The sale price was $550,000, payable over five years, plus 20,000 shares of Pace Industries (worth about $175,000). At the time, there were 315 franchise holders, with combined annual sales of $25 million, making it the largest doughnut franchise in the United