Doughnut retailer Krispy Kreme is changing its name, 14 years after launching in the UK - because British people have trouble pronouncing it.

The confusion is also causing problems when people come to tag the brand on social media as they don't know how to spell it correctly.

From today (Thursday March 30), shops in the UK will be known as 'Krispy Cream' to avoid the issue of Brits not knowing whether to pronounce 'Kreme' as 'cream' or the more French-sounding 'crème'.

The pronunciation of the brand isn’t the only problem for the former Krispy Kreme Ltd.

Since 2015, there have been over 30,000 independent tagged posts on social media spelling Krispy Kreme incorrectly.

The company said after 'much consideration' Krispy Kreme has taken the decision to re-brand in the UK and distance the UK franchise from its US counterpart.

Krispy Kreme doughnuts

Charlotte Roberts, Head of Marketing said: “The company re-brand is a strategic decision made in acknowledgement that our UK customers have struggled with the pronunciation of ‘Kreme’ (said ‘cream’) since our launch into the UK in 2003.

"We hope that the re-brand will settle any confusion as to both the pronunciation and spelling of the name for our customers.”

“We want to reassure our loyal fans that the quality of our doughnuts will remain of the highest standard and in line with original recipe that our founder Vernon Rudolph made famous almost 80 years ago.”

Keeping the original trademarked bowtie logo, Krispy Cream UK will begin to roll out the new branding to its UK stores immediately.

However, there has been speculation on social media from sceptics who are not convinced the whole thing isn't just an early April Fool's Day joke.

One person wrote: "This has to be an early April Fools (if it is - I prefer my April fools day jokes to actually happen on 1 April".

While another mused: "Can't work out if the @krispykremeUK name change is an early, but inspired, April fools joke or not.."