Owner of Irish Maid Donuts in Fort Smith ready to sell

A Fort Smith institution is looking to change hands. The owner of Irish Maid Donuts posted April 7 on social media that she is ready to sell the business that has been a breakfast stop for many since 1960.

“It’s time for us old folks,” noted the social media post. “We are ready to (sell) the business. It’s been open since 1960. Everything including our top secret recipes go with it. It’s nicely decorated, and we have worked very hard. … We will still remain open.”

Sarah Gill, 56, who along with her husband, Tim, owns the donut shop at Towson and Phoenix avenues, said it’s just the right time to sell.

“My daughter is getting married in two weeks,” Gill told Talk Business & Politics. “My dad died in September. My husband had heart surgery. It’s time.”

Irish Maid traces back to two brothers, Frank and Jim Claghorn, who lived in Little Rock. The brothers baked doughnuts and sold them door-to-door, according to historical accounts. Frank Claghorn moved to Fort Smith, where he started Irish Maid Donuts in 1960. Jim Claghorn moved to Pine Bluff and started his Irish Maid Donuts shop in 1961.

In 1998, Gill’s father, Clyde Adair bought the donut shop, which he owned and ran until 2004.

“He called me, said he was thinking about buying a donut shop, and asked if I wanted to run it with him,” Gill said.

She was then a young mother, working as a merchandiser for Hutchinson Shoes. But the company had recently moved her job to another city. She was either going to have to move to keep her job or find another. The donut business seemed to fit.

In 2004, Adair offered to sell the shop to his daughter for $50,000, and she bought it.

“He would still help me,” Gill said. “He’d come in every night and have coffee with me at midnight. I miss him and those midnight visits.”

Gill leases the storefront at 4600 Towson Ave., Suite 16, which is owned by the Beaty Capital Group. Gill said she doesn’t have a long-term lease, so now is a good time to sell and let new owners negotiate their own lease.

To help facilitate the asset sale, Gill has obtained the services of Mike Kincannon with Resolution Equity Partners of Fort Smith. She has received numerous inquiries about purchasing the business since the sale was announced.

“I refer them all to Mike,” Gill said. “I don’t know the first thing about trying to sell a business. I know how to sell a car, but not a business.”

Kincannon declined to comment for this story.

Everything about the business, except the building, is included in the sale, Gill said. That includes the decor in the shop, the display cases, all the bakery tools and donut-making equipment, and the secret recipes that came from the Claghorns, she said.

The basic donut recipe is not sweet, Gill said, noting someone could take it home and make bread out of it. The donuts get their sweetness from the glazes and fillings, all of which Gill makes rather than buys. Tim Gill makes the homemade kolaches.

“It’s the original recipes,” Gill said. “I don’t buy any mixes. I make my own mixes in my 500-pound blender in the back.”

Gill’s nephew, Kenneth Adair, helps Gill lift the heavy bags and pour things into the blender when she needs it. He’s been helping at the shop since he was 14. She thinks he could be persuaded to help the new owners for a small fee, and as a bonus, he knows how to change belts on some of the machinery.

“Everything here is from the (1950s),” Gill said. “It never breaks down. But anything that does need serviced, Franklin (Food Equipment) in Van Buren can take care of it.”

The fryer grease needs to be filtered every three to six months, Gill said, and the shop is equipped to filter its own grease, she said. The fryer is a 1946 model.

“All of the equipment is original,” she said.

There was a time when Gill kept the donut shop open six or seven days a week and had three shifts. Today, the store is open from 4 to 11 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday. By that time of morning, the Gills have already been hard at work for at least four hours, baking everything they sell.

Donuts have been a good business, Gill said, noting she owns her house and car and has no major bills. She said the shop makes between $300 and $500 a day.

“It was a little slow going the last couple of years, but things are picking back up now,” Gill said.

And new owners can make it what they want, she added.

“It’s going to be whatever you make it,” Gill said. “I just hope somebody will buy it who loves it as much as us.”

Gill hopes the business will sell by the time of her daughter’s wedding. And then she’ll take some time to figure out what she wants to do with her time.

“I’ll do something,” she said. “I really love dogs. I’d like to work with dogs, even if it’s as a volunteer.”