Dunkin' (known as Dunkin' Donuts from 1950 to early 2019, and still known as such to the public) is an American multinational coffee/doughnut company and quick service restaurant. It was founded by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1950. The chain was acquired by Baskin-Robbins' holding company Allied Domecq in 1990; its acquisition of the Mister Donut chain and the conversion of that chain to Dunkin' Donuts facilitated the brand's growth in North America that year.^[3] Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins have been subsidiaries of Dunkin' Brands, headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts, since 2004. The chain began rebranding as a "beverage-led company", and was renamed Dunkin', in January 2019.^[4]

With nearly 12,000 locations in 36 countries, Dunkin' is one of the largest coffee and baked goods chains in the world.^[5][6] Its products include donuts, bagels, other baked goods, and a variety of hot and iced beverages.^[7]

William Rosenberg opened Open Kettle in 1948, a restaurant selling donuts and coffee in Quincy, Massachusetts, but he changed the name in 1950 to Dunkin' Donuts after discussing with company executives.^[8] He conceived the idea for the restaurant after his experiences selling food in factories and at construction sites, where donuts and coffee were the two most popular items. The restaurant was successful, and Rosenberg sold franchises to others starting in 1955.^[5]

In 1963, Rosenberg’s son Robert became CEO of the company at age 25, and Dunkin’ Donuts opened its hundredth location that year.

Dunkin' Donuts was a subsidiary of Universal Food Systems at the time, a conglomerate of 10 small food-service businesses,^[9] and Dunkin' Donuts locations varied greatly in their menu options, with some selling full breakfasts and others serving only donuts and coffee.

In the following years, the other businesses in the Universal Food Systems portfolio were sold or closed, and the company was renamed to Dunkin' Donuts.

The menu and shop format were standardized, and various new menu items were introduced.

The chain was acquired by Baskin-Robbins owner Allied Lyons in 1990.^[10] By 1998, the brand had grown to 2,500 locations worldwide with $2 billion in annual sales.

Dunkin' Donuts expanded in the 1990s by buying out two rival chains: Mister Donut and Dawn Donuts.^[11]

In 2004, the company's headquarters were relocated to Canton.

In December 2005, Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins (by then operating under the name Dunkin' Brands) were sold to a private equity consortium of Bain Capital, Carlyle Group, and Thomas H. Lee Partners for $2.4 billion.^[12] By 2010, Dunkin' Donuts' global sales were $6 billion.^[13]

The Dunkin' Donuts in Natick, Massachusetts launched a program to test the concept of curbside pickup in December 2016.^[14][15]

In January 2018, Dunkin' Donuts began to open new concept locations, beginning in Quincy, featuring modern decor, cold beverages on tap and a single-cup brewing machine, more packaged take-out options, and dedicated pick-up lines for mobile ordering inside and in the drive-thru.

The concept was described as being part of a shift towards becoming an "on-the-go, beverage-led brand".

In addition, the location, as well as others, began to trial signage referring to the chain as simply "Dunkin'"—downplaying "Donuts" from the name.^[16][17]

On July 11, 2018, Dave Hoffman took over from Nigel Travis to become the CEO.

He is looking to add 1,000 new locations outside of the Northeastern United States by the end of 2020 and to have a revenue increase of 3 percent for stores open a year or longer.^[18]

Dunkin' Donuts' current slogan is "America Runs On Dunkin'".

In March 2009, the company unveiled the alternate slogan "You 'Kin Do It!" and launched a $100 million ad campaign promotion.^[19] Dunkin' Donuts' "It's Worth the Trip" campaign starred sleepy-eyed "Fred the Baker" and featured the catchphrase "Time to make the donuts". It won honors from the Television Bureau of Advertising as one of the five best television advertisements of the 1980s. Fred the Baker was played by actor Michael Vale for 15 years until his retirement in 1997. The catchphrase was used in the title of founder William Rosenberg's autobiography Time to Make the Donuts: The Founder of Dunkin' Donuts Shares an American Journey

Dunkin' Donuts changed its slogan in March 2006 to "America Runs on Dunkin'".

They Might Be Giants songs have been featured in an ongoing series of advertisements of new products to boost summer sales. In 2007, a series of Dunkin' Donuts commercials referred to the fictional language "Fritalian". "Is it French? Or is it Italian?" sings a chorus of customers facing a long menu of non-English terms. "Perhaps Fritalian?" was created by Hill Holliday to "poke fun at pretentious Starbucks-style coffee chains, with patrons attempting to order hard-to-pronounce lattes."^[20][21] The commercial was interpreted as a deliberate mocking of Starbucks.^[21][22] The commercials' punch line is: "Delicious lattes from Dunkin' Donuts. You order them in English". It has been a point of discussion that latte, cappuccino, and espresso are loanwords from Italian which have no equivalence in English. The commercials, however, refer to the Starbucks ordering language itself, poking fun at words such as grande and venti.^[21] Further commercials in 2007 more directly mocked Starbucks, with a customer ordering a "large" and being chastised to use the term "dieci".

Rachael Ray has starred in commercials for Dunkin' Donuts since 2007. In May 2008, Dunkin' Donuts removed a commercial from its website featuring Ray wearing a scarf with a black and white paisley floral design, in response to columnist Michelle Malkin's claims that the scarf resembled the keffiyeh worn by Yasser Arafat and therefore a sign of support for terrorists.^[23] Dunkin' Donuts pulled that commercial off the air,^[24] leading to criticism of the company's perceived kowtowing to special interests.^[25]

In 2017, Dunkin' Donuts announced that it would begin testing the name of simply "Dunkin'" at some retail locations, as they would like to be thought of as a destination for coffee, its most profitable product.^[26] The branding would be implemented in other locations in the latter half of 2018 if it is successful.^[27]

On April 3, 2018, Dunkin' Donuts teamed up with the Massachusetts shoe manufacturer, Saucony to produce a strawberry-frosted donut themed running shoe to commemorate the 122nd running of the Boston Marathon. The Saucony X Dunkin’ Kinvara 9 comes in a donut box and the heel of the shoe is covered in rainbow sprinkles.^[28]

A script version of the words Dunkin' Donuts was filed on March 31, 1955, and registered on February 2, 1960. A later logo was for a drawing and word logo depicting a figure with a donut for a head and a coffee cup and donut body wearing a garrison cap, with Dunkin' emblazoned on both the coffee cup and cap. The design was rendered primarily in yellow and brown. The logo was applied for on June 23, 1958, registered on May 23, 1961, and put into use on July 1, 1964.^[29]

In 1961, the company began using a hot pink color for its branding and used a logo showing a stylized coffee cup with the company's name rendered on one line as a circle, evoking a donut dunking into the cup.

In 1980, bright orange was added to the hot pink.

As of 2014, the current logo is a variation of the logo that has been in use since about 1980: an all-capitals rendering of the words Dunkin' Donuts (Dunkin' in orange; Donuts in pink) in a thick, Frankfurter typeface^[30] with a coffee cup outlined in brown with a "DD" monogram.^[31]

In September 2018, Dunkin' Donuts officially announced that it would shorten its name to Dunkin', with a wider roll-out beginning in January 2019.

The company acknowledged that "Dunkin'" was already a common shorthand name for the chain among customers and in its marketing (including the slogan "America Runs on Dunkin'"), and that the rebranding would reflect the chain's continuing shift towards being a "beverage-led" brand at a time when consumers have shown a preference for healthier trends and options as they consume fewer donuts.^{[32][4][33][34]}

In April 2018, Dunkin' named BBDO as their primary advertising agency, replacing Hill Holliday, which had been producing print, digital, broadcast, and billboard advertising for almost twenty years. Hill Holliday was the agency responsible for the tagline "America Runs on Dunkin'". ARC/Leo Burnett was also named to lead all in-store promotions.^[35]

Dunkin' Donuts has a close relationship with the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots, making commercials at the start of each team's season for promotions. Dunkin’ Donuts also sponsors other professional sports teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Philadelphia Eagles, and Tampa Bay Rays. In January 2014, English football club Liverpool announced a multimillion-pound global partnership with the company.^[36] Dunkin' Donuts signed a sponsorship deal with the National Women's Hockey League in December 2015. As part of the multi-year agreement, Dunkin’ Donuts is the official hot, iced and frozen coffee of the NWHL.^[37] In 2001, Dunkin' Donuts purchased the naming rights for the former Providence Civic Center, and renamed it the Dunkin' Donuts Center. The center is currently the home court for the NCAA and Big East Providence Friars men's basketball team from Providence College as well as home ice for the AHL Providence Bruins hockey team. In reference to the Center's long association with local college basketball, it is often known locally as "The Dunk". In 2015, Dunkin' Donuts was announced as the named sponsor of the baseball park in Hartford, Connecticut, new home of the Hartford Yard Goats baseball team. It will be named Dunkin' Donuts Park.

As of December 28, 2013, there were 10,858 Dunkin' Donuts retail locations, including 7,677 in the United States and 3,181 in other countries.^[38].

As of February 9, 2017, all of Dunkin' Donuts locations are franchisee owned and operated.^[39] Within its Northeast home base, Dunkin' Donuts is very popular, and particularly dominant within the six New England states, especially Massachusetts. In addition to its stand-alone shops, Dunkin' Donuts shops can be found within many gas stations, supermarkets, mall and airport food courts, and Walmart stores. Dunkin' Donuts is continuing to grow by adding more locations around the U.S., including the regions where it has been long established. In July 2013, Dunkin' Donuts opened its 500th restaurant, in New York City. This location is combined with a Baskin-Robbins.^[40] While the greatest number of shops are located in the Northeastern United States, Dunkin' Donuts has since slowly expanded across to the west coast, with more shops planned for the next few years. In the U.S., there are at least 82 franchisees west of the Mississippi River, mostly in central Iowa, which is expected to have approximately 20 new locations over the next 6 years.^{[41][42][43][44][45]} Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas are all expected to see new locations over the next several years as well.

In the past decade, Dunkin' Donuts has opened many locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Phoenix, and Las Vegas metropolitan areas.

In 2013, Dunkin' Donuts opened their first eight locations in the Salt Lake City area, bringing the brand to Utah for the first time.

Shop locations also opened in the Denver and Omaha regions. 2014 saw the return of Dunkin' Donuts to the state of Minnesota after nearly a decade's absence, with a new shop opened inside the Kahler Grand Hotel in Rochester.^[46]

In the United States, Dunkin' Donuts is sometimes paired with Baskin-Robbins ice cream in a single multibranded store. While such locations usually maintain separate counters for each chain (much like co-branded Wendy's–Tim Hortons locations in Canada), depending on business that day, both chains' products can be bought at a single counter (usually Dunkin' Donuts'). The practice of single-counter service is similar to that of multibranded Yum! Brands stores such as KFC–Taco Bell, which share a single kitchen and cashier line.^[47]

Since 2014, an increasing number of Dunkin' Donuts shops have begun appearing in California.

Traditionally, California has been the stronghold of sister brand Baskin-Robbins, which was founded in Glendale.

Dunkin' Donuts signed agreements to open 18 shops in Orange County, along with eight more shops planned for the North Inland Empire, including the first location in that region that opened in Upland in early 2015.^[48] By December 2015, more than 20 California shops were opened, including locations in Barstow (at Barstow Station), Downey, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Long Beach, Modesto, Ramona, San Diego (at Embassy Suites), Santa Monica, Upland, and Whittier; along with a shop on the Camp Pendleton military base and a location inside the LAX Airport. The San Diego Embassy Suites shop, shared with Baskin-Robbins, was the company's first co-branded location in California when it opened in March 2014, while the Santa Monica shop was the first to open in the Los Angeles area in September 2014. Going forward from 2015, the company expects to begin opening what could eventually total more than 1,000 shops in California.^[49][50]

On January 16, 2013, Nigel Travis, Dunkin' Donuts' CEO, announced that the Dunkin' Donuts franchises would be available in California beginning in 2015.^[51] In July 2013, Dunkin’ Donuts announced that it has signed its first Southern California multi-unit store development agreements with four franchise groups for a total commitment of 45 new restaurants. The first standalone restaurants were expected to open in 2015 in Orange and Los Angeles counties.^[50] The chain also planned to expand into more stores in Texas by 2015.^[52] On March 10, 2014, the first Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin-Robbins combination store in Southern California opened in Ramona.^[53] This is Dunkin' Donuts' third California shop to open, following shops in Barstow and on Camp Pendleton. Since March 2014, Dunkin' Donuts has opened several additional locations throughout California, including the Los Angeles area. In 2016, Dunkin' Donuts shops opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in Walnut Creek and Half Moon Bay.^[54] Dunkin' Donuts shops opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in Walnut Creek, Half Moon Bay, and American Canyon in 2016, as well as South San Francisco and Fremont, in 2017.^[54][55][56]

By March 2014, Dunkin' Donuts' largest international market was South Korea, representing nearly 40 percent of all international sales. With over 900 outlets in the country, it had three times as many as McDonald's, and about a third more than Starbucks. South Korea is home to Dunkin Donuts' only coffee roasting plant outside the U.S. Still, the company sees China and its vastly larger population as the more lucrative opportunity. In 2008, Dunkin' Donuts opened its first restaurant in Shanghai, representing the first step in its China expansion strategy. By March 2014, it had about 50 stores in the country and an agreement to open 100 more over the next five years.^[57][58]

In Brazil, Dunkin' Donuts opened its first building in 1980.^[59] In 2013, it planned to open 25 franchises in the country.^[60]

In Colombia, Dunkin' Donuts opened its first store in Bogota in 1983. By 2015, DD operated more than 100 stores only in the capital city of the country.^[61] Currently it operates more than 150 stores around the country including locations in the cities of Medellin, Cali, Ibague, Pereira, Manizales and Barranquilla.^[62]

In January 2014, Dunkin' Donuts relaunched in the UK 20 years after it exited the country with its first store opening in Harrow, London.^[63]

On December 5, 2014, Dunkin' Donuts opened their first location in the Nordic region, at the Täby Centrum shopping mall in the outskirts of Stockholm, Sweden.^[64][65][66] On July 24, 2018, Dunkin Donuts announced that the company's Swedish operations had filed for bankruptcy and all locations in Sweden would close immediately.^[67] On April 1, 2015, the first store in Denmark opened on Copenhagen Central Station and by May 5, 2015 one opened at Roskilde station. There is still one in construction in Odense.^[68]

In early December 2015, Dunkin' Donuts opened their first cafe in 13 years in Warsaw, Poland.

The opening of a second location in Warsaw is announced for January 2016.

In December 2018 a third branch was under construction in the city.^[69]

On January 21, 2016, Dunkin' Brands announced a master franchise agreement with Grand Parade Investments Ltd.

that calls for developing 250 Dunkin' Donuts and 70 Baskin-Robbins outlets throughout South Africa.^[70] The first stores opened in the end of 2016 in the Cape Town area.

The term "Donuts" was already trademarked by one of the largest Spanish bakery firms, Panrico,^[71] so the company was born as a joint venture between Dunkin' Donuts' then-parent Allied Domecq and Panrico (only Spanish shareholders, representing 50%) in order to use the brand name "Dunkin' Donuts".

In 2007, after Dunkin' Donuts bought out Panrico's 50% share, the stores were rebranded to "Dunkin' Coffee".^[72] As of 2017, there are 59 Dunkin' Coffee locations in Spain, the majority of which are in Barcelona, Madrid, and Málaga.

Their slogan, "Juntos es mejor", translates to "Together is better".

Despite once having hundreds of stores nation wide, Dunkin' Donuts and its market share all but vanished from Canada by the turn of the century.

In the late 1990s to early 2000s, the chain began disappearing from all regions of Canada, with its last foothold in the province of Quebec. However, its decline was most apparent in Quebec, where the chain once had 210 stores but by mid 2017 had only three—the last franchisees in the country.^[73] By then only one free standing store had the facilities to make donuts fresh on site; the other two were merely shopping-mall food-court stands, dependent on the delivery of baked goods from the main store. One of the main reasons for Dunkin' Donuts' decline was competition with Tim Hortons, similar to Tim Hortons' own decline in the northeastern United States due to heavy competition from Dunkin' Donuts. A group of Dunkin' Donuts franchisees won a C$16.4 million civil court judgement against the parent company for failing to adequately promote the brand in Canada. In September 2018, after 57 years of operating in Canada,^[74] Dunkin' Donuts ceased business in that country when it refused to renew its franchise license to the few remaining stores left. All remaining Canadian locations were closed or rebranded as independent businesses in late 2018 - ending the presence of Dunkin' Donuts in the country.^[75]

Baskin-Robbins - a subsidiary of Dunkin' Brands - continues to operate stores across Canada.^[76]

In 1970, Japan became the first Asian country to open Dunkin' Donuts stores. The Japanese chain was owned by a joint venture between the Saison Group, Yoshinoya, and the Japanese subsidiary of the Compass Group named Seiyo Food Systems. After 28 years of operating in Japan, Dunkin' Donuts ceased business there in 1998 due to declining sales and poor performance. All of the non-military base locations were either closed or converted to Mister Donut locations. Dunkin' Donuts still has locations in United States military bases, which are open only to military personnel.

In 1997, Dunkindonuts.org was established by a customer for disgruntled consumers and employees to lodge complaints about the company. The site appeared ahead of the company's own website in many search engines, and received national media coverage before being purchased by Dunkin' Donuts in 1999.^[99]

Dunkin' Donuts was criticized by one of its franchisees for allegedly forcing single-store owners to agree to a buyout at a loss for minor infractions.

Dunkin' Donuts sued franchise owners 154 times from 2006 to April 2008.

Over the same period, McDonald's was involved in five lawsuits. Subway, a company that has four times the number of locations as Dunkin' Donuts, sued its franchisees 12 times. (These figures do not include arbitrations, which the companies use in pursuing legal claims against their franchisees.) Franchisees allege that the company's business strategy needs predominantly multi-unit franchisees.^[100]

In 2009, the company temporarily stopped the sale of two of its products, the Dunkaccino and hot chocolate, after concern of a possible salmonella poisoning at a supplier's facilities. Dunkin' Donuts claims that none of the beverages were contaminated, but the recall was made out of safety for its consumers.^[101]

In May 2010, Dunkin' Donuts was criticized for advertising "Free Iced Coffee Day" on its national Facebook page, which took place in only 13 cities.^[102] Because of the limited scope of the promotion, many customers became dissatisfied with the lack of free iced coffee and vented their anger on the Dunkin' Donuts Facebook page.^[103]

In 2013, the Dunkin' Donuts chain in Thailand used an advertisement that contained a photograph of a woman in black face-paint, in order to promote its new chocolate flavored donuts.

The company was criticized for the advertisement, with the Human Rights Watch calling the advertisement “bizarre and racist”. The headquarters in the United States apologized for the advertisement.^[104]

Nancy Lewis, in Canaan, Connecticut, began a petition in January 2014 to request that Dunkin' Donuts donate their unsold food to local shelters and food banks in her area after seeing her local shop regularly throwing away "large amounts" of unsold food. She said because the company has no official policy on the redistribution of its unsold food items to shelters or food banks, and employees are not allowed to take any home,^[105] many affiliates throw all of the goods away.^[106]

In 2016, consumer class action attorneys Zachary J. Liszka and Carl J. Mayer filed class actions in New York^[107] and New Jersey^[108] against Dunkin' Donuts and their franchisees on behalf of a class of plaintiffs alleging that the company and its franchisees were unlawfully surcharging customers in the guise of a sales tax on certain items.

In July 2017, two New York City police officers were refused service by an employee at Dunkin' Donuts after the employee told the police "I don't serve cops".^[109] Police officers boycotted the chain because of the incident and lack of apology from Dunkin' Donuts at the time.^[110] Though the company issued an apology, many considered it weak and some non-police customers joined the boycott, also leaving angry messages on the company's social media pages.^[111]