Business feature: Duo in doughnut business

Sandy and Thane Floyd own Daylight Donuts. The business has been serving Portales little round glazed circles of joy for 25 years. Sandy said her husband has been working in the doughnut business since he was a sophomore in high school in Los Alamos off and on.

“When he graduated from high school he worked for them for two years,” Sandy said. “I graduated high school and we came down here to go to Eastern New Mexico University.”

Sandy said when Thane got here he couldn’t find a job to help pay for school. Thane learned how to make doughnuts from working with his parents business, said Sandy.

Thane always wanted to own his own business so his parents helped him set up his own little store, where he took care of the bills.

“Twenty-five years later we’re still in the dough,” Sandy said.

Daylight Donuts serves doughnuts, rolls, hot drinks and sodas. They sell raised and cake doughnuts and can make special orders with advance notice.

The Floyds go to bed early and get up early to make those round treats.

“A typical day, my husband will get up around midnight,” Sandy said. “He’ll go in about one in the morning and get the store set up for operation. He will start his first dough and cake doughnuts cook at a lower temperature so you have to do those first.”

After a long night of making doughnuts, Thane goes home and lets his employees run the store. The doughnuts that don’t sell are tossed or given away.

“We decided not to sell day-old doughnuts,” Sandy said. “If we have a lot left over then we’ll call the children’s homes and donate several boxes.”

Sandy said almost every weekend they donate Friday’s unsold donuts to volunteers working on houses Saturday mornings for Habitat for Humanity.

“Other times we give them to the Golden Library at ENMU during their dead week,” Sandy said. “We’ll donate for about a week and they give them to the students late at night when the library is open.”