Raphael’s Donuts

Business Description

Raphael’s Donuts was invented in November 2013 and launched in May 2014 by our owner and masterbaker Raphael T. Harlan, out of inspiration from pioneer/owner/masterbaker Raphael Harlan’s deceased adoptive mother Cora Lee Harlan, who was a long time type 2 diabetic. By him having been a long time fanatic of healthy foods and long time gourmet home baker, healthnut, and experienced business owner, he noticed that  no donut company — e-commerce or brick-and-mortar retail — since the deep-fried donut was invented in 1847 — has made a marketable healthy donut that is fitting for those in diabetic lifestyles! With a little capital and after testing them out with friends and former college professors, he started and launched Raphael’s Donuts as the world’s first and only diabetic-friendly low glycemic donut company. 

We started out doing sales at mostly Genesee county-area farmers markets and festivals during most of our first 18 months of existence, which was also the first 18 months of the diabetic-friendly donut category. Slow but steady, people experienced our donuts, and they over time got not only hooked taste-wise with them, but they became obsessed with our mission and story and brand!!! Fast-forward to our 7th year of company history, we are not only going strong with 4 employees, but we are serving people in both mid-Michigan and Southeastern Michigan with our current home delivery e-commerce service and much of the United States with our mail order service! In fact, since 2018, we have gained individual customers in 20 states and counting, having shipped our Raphael’s Donuts orders out to them, not even counting the customers we have in our 35 mile delivery radius (used to be 70 miles for individual customer orders)! Plus, as of July 2021, we’re back in a rental commercial kitchen production facility baking our donut products and we’re currently in 8 retailers across Michigan and California! Our growing customers are still in love with us, with more 1st time customers now eating our always healthy Raphael’s Donuts!!! Not only diabetics and vegans alike, but also gluten-free people and healthnuts alike find themselves eating them over and over and over again and benefiting from eating them!! As now a 100% vegan, gluten-free and diabetic-friendly donut company, people cannot feel any guilt eating our donuts, Raphael’s gourmet and rockin’ imagined-modern creations! 

You’ll find yourselves ordering our donuts on our website for home delivery or nationwide shipping — no matter where you are in America — and also, if you’re in Michigan, buying them in retailers to eat them, whether you eat two, three, a half dozen or even a dozen. You can even share them with friends, family members, co-workers or even your spouses or love partners, or you can eat them for yourselves. We have 12 year-round flavors of our always-loved, always healthfully delicious gluten-free vegan donuts and donut ballz! You’ll fall in love with our donuts and donut ballz as our team from the ownership & management side to the delivery driving/customer service team put their efforts and heart to make sure you have the best experience!

If you’re a potential retailer looking to carry our Raphael’s Donuts products, you’ll find yourselves ordering to stock on them for your retail shop, whether you’re a grocery store of any size, a drinking cafe of any size of any kind, an apple orchard, a cider mill, or even a health food store of any size. Just feel free to request for our wholesale info flyer which contains our wholesale pricing, retail pricing, 12 year-round flavors we have for our donuts and donut ballz, shelf life info and minimum order requirements or just simply order for your retail establishment! We still deliver wholesale orders by vehicle within 70 miles from Pontiac MI and also ship nationwide across all 50 states, including Michigan areas outside our delivery radius. We’d love to work with you!