CANTON, Mass. – Dunkin’ Donuts, which employs 1,034 people at 180 stores in Rhode Island, said its sales rose 4 percent last year as the ubiquitous coffee chain opened 351 new stores around the world.
Dunkin’ Donuts recorded annual revenue of $5.7 billion in 2009, up from $5.5 billion in 2008, according to a statement from its parent company, Dunkin’ Brands Inc., which also owns Baskin Robbins. The privately held company did not disclose earnings.
“Despite the economy, Dunkin’ Donuts experienced strong net growth across the U.S. as well as internationally, which positions us as one of the fastest-growing [quick-service restaurant] brands in the industry last year,” Dunkin’ Brands CEO Nigel Travis said in a statement.
There were more than 9,000 Dunkin’ Donuts stores worldwide by the end of last year, up from 8,835 at the end of 2008, the company said. Lovers of iced coffee and munchkins could satisfy their cravings at new stores in China, South Korea, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and the Bahamas.
In the United States the chain added 171 stores, many of them in nontraditional locations such as airports, stadiums and universities.
The company also said 90 percent of those new U.S. Dunkin’ stores were located outside its core New England market, including in new regions such as Louisville, Ky., Birmingham, Ala., Dayton, Ohio, Madison, Wis., and Erie, Pa.
“As we continue to grow in 2010, we are focusing on steady, strategic growth that allows us to gain greater penetration in our existing markets, while also entering a few select new territories,” Travis said.
Dunkin’ Donuts was founded in 1950 in Quincy, Mass., with its first franchise opening in 1955. The first Dunkin’ Donuts in Rhode Island opened in 1956 on North Main Street in Providence. The company had 180 shops in the Ocean State as of January, a spokesman said.
Dunkin’ Donuts stores and franchises employed 1,034 workers in Rhode Island at the end of last year, Melissa Chambers, a spokeswoman for the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, said in an e-mail.
That did not include the 99 people who work at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, which is owned by the R.I. Convention Center Authority but carries the coffee chain’s name under a 10-year naming rights deal Dunkin’ Brands signed in 2001.
Additional information is available at dunkindonuts.com.
While Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins may be doing well in the USA, their actions in some foreign markets have seen the brand reputations damaged as criminal investigations are launched into their behavior. Australia in particular, and their local partners Allied Brands and Shane Radbone, have seen the Baskin Robbins brand selling franchises with migration visas to Australia to get helpless Koreans, Chinese, Indians, and other migrants stuck with failed locations that Australians would’t buy.
When Baskin Robbins was being run by the British owners, these kinds of immoral activities didn’t occur. It’s only the onset of US venture capital controlled management that has seen the immoral company activities escalate.
http://baskinrobbinsaustralia.blogspot.com
Nigel Travis and his other US VC flunkies should be ashamed of their tarnishing these once proud brands in this way.