Roladin

Roladin operates as a national network of patisseries and cafés, with baked goods rather than coffeehouse service historically forming its core business. In 2011, more than 60% of its sales came from patisserie products.[4] The company's 2026 history page lists 113 branches across Israel and six more in planning.[1] Most branches are franchise-operated, while production is centered at the main patisserie in Kadima.[1][5]

Brothers Kobi and Avi Hakak began selling baked goods door to door in 1987, after Avi returned from a post-army trip and Kobi joined him on weekends.[6] The company's history says they initially obtained cakes and pastries from a relative's patisserie before developing their own products.[1] In 1989, the brothers opened the first Roladin branch in Ramat Hasharon; their brother Dudi later joined the business.[6] The founders have said the venture was built around their mother's handwritten doughnut recipes and a shared love of baking.[7]

The chain's first Hanukkah proved to be a defining moment. Business at the new shop started slowly, and when the bakery supplying their pastries declined to provide fresh sufganiyot throughout the day, the brothers obtained dough and began frying doughnuts themselves outside the shop. They started production using their mother's couscous pot, which held seven doughnuts at a time, then scaled up to 16 and eventually to 60 at once using an electric fryer.[6] Sales of other products, including burekas, cakes and pastries, grew markedly after that Hanukkah, establishing sufganiyot at the heart of the business.[6]

In 2002, Roladin established its central production base in Kadima in the Sharon region, setting up a patisserie with advanced baking equipment and a visitor center. The Kadima facility became the place where ingredients are prepared and baked goods are produced before being distributed to branches.[1] In 2005, the company rebranded from a youthful illustrated design to a cleaner style inspired by France.[1] Ten new branches opened in 2008, and by the end of 2016 the network had reached 63 branches.[1]

As of 2009, Roladin operated 27 branches, with seven locations and the Kadima patisserie directly company-owned and the remainder franchised. The network was split between full café branches and smaller outlets focused mainly on takeaway.[8] Co-owner Kobi Hakak said at the time that most branches were profitable and that only two had closed in the company's first 20 years, attributing the closures to factors including high rent and poor location.[8]

By 2011, the chain had grown to 34 branches, seven company-operated and the rest franchised, with 13 functioning as full-menu cafés. More than 60% of sales came from patisserie products, which Hakak described as the chain's core business.[4] Reports that year described plans for 25 to 30 smaller neighborhood-format branches, generally no larger than 80 to 100 square meters, with approximately NIS 800,000 invested per location.[4][9] The format was intended to reduce operating costs while bringing an accessible café and pastry shop with a "homelike atmosphere and personal service" closer to customers. Early branches opened in Petah Tikva, Ramat Gan and Rishon Lezion, with further openings planned in Holon, Netanya and Ashkelon.[9]

In 2012, businessman Golan Einat, through G.E.G Investments, acquired a 50% stake in the company. The deal valued Roladin at approximately NIS 84 million, with Einat's investment reported at around NIS 43 million, including NIS 10 million earmarked to expand the Kadima cake factory.[10] At the time, the chain had 42 branches. Einat stated that network-wide annual sales, including franchisees, were approximately NIS 200 million, though market estimates in the same report put the figure at NIS 120 million.[10] Roladin's history page identifies Einat as a partner who helped the chain grow.[1]

By 2013, Roladin had 47 branches and was expanding at eight to ten branches per year. For its 25th-anniversary activities, it launched a customer club and an expanded patisserie range, emphasizing that its pastries were baked in branches and its burekas folded by hand.[11] In 2019, the company marked its 30th anniversary with a recipe book covering its cakes, sufganiyot and pastries and launched its online site.[1] Branch totals reached 89 in 2020 and 94 in 2021, then exceeded 100 in 2023.[1] The company's 2026 history page lists 113 branches, with six more planned.[1]

In 2021, Roladin invested approximately NIS 15 million in a dedicated 1,500-square-meter sourdough-bread factory beside its existing pastry factory and logistics center in Kadima. The facility used production lines and stone ovens sourced from France and Germany to produce sourdough breads, baguettes and rolls.[12] The chain's product breadth was reflected in its 2026 Shavuot collection, which included cheesecakes, savory pastries, focaccias, quiches and handcrafted sourdough breads. Cakes were priced at NIS 85–210, quiches at NIS 95, and pastries and breads at NIS 14–28.[2]

Sufganiyot, the oil-fried doughnuts eaten during Hanukkah, are the product most closely associated with Roladin's identity. The chain was already beginning sales in September, shortly after Rosh Hashanah, in 2015, when a company spokeswoman said it had followed the practice for 26 years. She explained, "We have the sufganiyot with the most innovative flavors. The inspiration comes from French desserts."[13]

Each year Roladin releases a new collection of specialty varieties alongside classic options. Its 2017 selection of 12 varieties included a mango-pineapple cream-filled "meringue cheese cake" doughnut topped with white chocolate and whipped cream, a "red kiss" with red-fruit cream, mascarpone, meringue kisses and berries, and a "green queen" with white-chocolate-and-pistachio cream and pistachio glaze.[14]

By 2021, the company's Bisuitella Caramel combined vanilla ganache, toffee crumble, caramelized pecans, butter-cookie crumbs, caramel icing and a salted-caramel accompaniment.[15] The 2024 collection featured a Pistachio Praline sufganiya filled with pistachio cream and topped with pistachio crust, pistachio varigato and an Amarena cherry, as well as a Tropical variety with mango-pineapple coulis, vanilla cream, and freeze-dried coconut and mango. Roladin also released a sufganiyot-themed card game alongside that year's flavors.[16]

The sales breakdown reflects the importance of specialty products: jelly-filled doughnuts account for roughly 25% of Hanukkah sales, dulce de leche varieties for 15%, and specialty doughnuts the remaining 60%.[17] Director-general Noa Bachar Aharoni has described inspiration as coming from global trends, including sweet-and-salty combinations, and emphasized that presentation matters "from the box to the minutest detail of each sufganiya."[15]

The operational demands of Hanukkah are considerable. Staffing needs during peak periods can reach ten times those of a regular day.[17] Roladin runs a dedicated "Sufganiyot Academy," also called a "sufganiyah school," to train franchisees and branch workers to produce several thousand doughnuts per day and keep them fresh.[15][17] The company plans its collections a year in advance, with pastry chefs traveling abroad to source ingredients and branch managers learning the collection through internal workshops before its launch, which in 2020 took place the day after Sukkot.[18] Kobi Hakak has said that 97% of franchisees would prefer to forgo the holiday because of the production and staffing burden.[17]

Rising ingredient costs led Roladin to increase sufganiyot prices in 2022. The classic strawberry-jelly doughnut rose from NIS 6 to NIS 7; several flavors that had cost NIS 10 rose to NIS 12; and premium varieties moved from NIS 14 to NIS 15–16. The price of a dozen increased from NIS 145 to NIS 155. The company attributed the increases to butter prices rising from NIS 18 to NIS 28 per kilogram, higher flour costs and a shortage of workers.[17]

Roladin applies a similar emphasis on novelty to its Purim offerings. Ahead of Purim in 2017, the chain introduced a dozen new hamantaschen flavors and planned to produce two million hamantaschen in total, divided evenly between traditional and new varieties.[19] New flavors included triple-sec cheesecake, amaretto-pistachio-marzipan, salted-caramel chocolate, and goat cheese with onion jam. The company's CEO described the goal as being to "innovate and surprise" with sweet, salty, alcoholic and traditional flavors, and characterized the pastries as handmade using higher-quality ingredients.[19]

Roladin's central patisserie in Kadima operates under the supervision of the Lev HaSharon Rabbinate. Most branches hold kosher certificates from their local rabbinate, consistent with the chain's primarily franchise-operated structure.[5] The chain's classic strawberry-jam and milk-jam sufganiyot use Cholov Yisrael milk powder, while specialty sufganiyot contain non-Cholov Yisrael milk powder, a distinction relevant to customers who observe the stricter Cholov Yisrael standard.[5]

By 2023, Roladin also had a kiosk in a Netherlands mall.[7] Its more significant international step was the opening of Donutelier by Roladin in London, the chain's first dedicated gourmet doughnut shop outside Israel. Located in Charing Cross near Leicester Square station, the outlet was designed around Roladin-style sufganiyot rather than functioning as a conventional branch.[7][6] It offered 12 varieties selected from Roladin's Israeli seasonal menus, with new varieties planned roughly monthly.[7]

The London venture had been planned before the COVID-19 pandemic, and its launch was delayed after the partnership was formed shortly before restrictions began.[7] The founders said they considered expanding to New York but chose London partly because of property costs, distance and time-zone considerations; Israeli partner Eric Weiss was involved in the venture.[6] A second London branch opened in 2025.[1]

Roladin's significance in Israeli festive baking rests on the scale and visibility of its seasonal products rather than on an established claim that it invented the specialty-sufganiyot trend. A 2019 account described the chain as a leading force behind the trend but explicitly said it was unclear whether Roladin originated it. The account credited the company's national reach and marketing with helping the trend succeed and reported that yearly specials made up more than half of its sufganiyot sales.[3] A 2024 feature likewise characterized Roladin as Israel's most well-known bakery chain and highlighted its nationally available, extravagant Hanukkah offerings.[16]

Roladin's 2022 Hanukkah campaign featured body painting by artist Johannes Stötter depicting a woman's body as a sufganiya. The company described the campaign as an artistic representation of the pastry's evolution. Coverage reported criticism accusing it of objectifying women as well as positive responses describing it as creative. Company representatives said they had not anticipated the negative reaction.[17]