Vicksburg’s long-loved Shipley’s Donuts locations may look different than normal.

In the midst of a transition from a corporate affiliation, different aspects of the shops, including logos, recipes and signs, are changing as all three former Shipley’s Donuts locations become Divine Donuts, still owned by Becky Yelverton and run as a family business.

“I have just seen God’s hand all through this. I know this is his plan for us,” Becky said. “It wasn’t a place we ever thought about going. We would have lived and died at Shipley’s, but he’s taken us down a new path.”

At least one of Yelverton’s doughnut shops has been in Vicksburg for 37 years as Shipley’s Donuts, so she said the change has been difficult for her and her family.

Her husband Mark said, “It was a very emotional decision as well as what we ultimately felt like was a quality decision, quality of product and so forth. It was not something that was taken lightly and not something done on a whim.

“We do not want to be negative in any way toward Shipley’s,” Mark said. “They’ve been good to us. It’s been a good thing for a long time. We have no ill will. It just came to a certain point, and the break away has been amiable. We respect their right to make changes as they see fit, and they respect our rights too.”

The decision to branch out on their own from Shipley’s was based on changes its corporate office was planning on making, he said.

“Shipley headquarters decided to make wide-ranging changes from the hours we keep to the recipes — just total wide-ranging changes — and we did not feel that the sum total of those changes was in the best interest of our customers,” Mark said of the decision, which he estimated to be about a year in the making.

Though names, logos and recipes are changing, Mark said they are waiting to hold an event acknowledging the change.

“Because there are an innumerable number, and it is such a wide ranging process, not only for the product but other incidentals like packaging and signage, so we’re waiting until we get everything together to have a grand opening,” he said.

They are still working to perfect the new recipe, he added, noting everything should be in place by the end of September.

“The change in recipe is something we’re working on, and we feel like we’re very close. We’re not completely satisfied with it yet,” he said. “We recognize the fact that we have some very sophisticated donut eaters as customers. They’re very discerning as to what is a good donut and what is a bad donut. Our customers hold us to a very high standard, and we want to produce and put out the perfect donut.”

As for the shops’ new name, Divine Donuts, Becky said it was the product of some divine inspiration.

“We had been hunting for a name. We had sheets and sheets of names,” she said. “I said, ‘Well Lord, we’ve got to have a name to get started.’ Boom. Divine popped into my head. When I came back (from visiting the other stores), this newspaper article with divine in the title was on the table. Then a lady came in that night or the next day and said, ‘These donuts are absolutely divine.’ I knew we had the name.”

Their staff of 22 employees won’t change, nor will their hours, Mark said.

“This could not have happened without the whole-hearted enthusiastic support of everyone involved,” he added. “We welcome our customers input and ask them to be patient while we pursue perfection.”