Dunkin' Donuts LLC, doing business as Dunkin', is an American multinational fast food restaurant chain specializing in coffee and doughnuts. It was founded by Bill Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1950. The chain was acquired by Baskin-Robbins' holding company Allied Lyons 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 the same year.
Dunkin' and Baskin-Robbins eventually became subsidiaries of Dunkin' Brands, headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts, in 2004. Dunkin' Brands was purchased by Inspire Brands on December 15, 2020. The chain began rebranding as a "beverage-led company", and was renamed Dunkin' in January 2019. While stores in the U.S. began using the new name, the company intends to roll out the rebranding to all of its international locations.
With approximately 14,200 locations in 39 countries and $14.5 billion in system sales, Dunkin' is one of the largest coffee shop and doughnut shop chains in the world. In addition to several varieties of coffee and doughnuts, products sold include bagels, breakfast sandwiches, muffins, and doughnut holes branded as Munchkins.
History 1948–1963: Founding years
Bill Rosenberg opened the Open Kettle in 1948, a restaurant selling doughnuts and coffee in Quincy, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston), but in late May 1950,John Estrella, "Drive Gave Rise to Doughnut Empire," Quincy Patriot Ledger, November 28, 2001, p. 11. he changed the name to Dunkin' Donuts after discussions with company executives. He conceived the idea for the restaurant after his experiences selling food in factories and at construction sites, where doughnuts and coffee were the two most popular items. The company introduced its first logo in 1953, and the mascot Dunkie in 1954. The restaurant was successful, and Rosenberg sold franchises to others starting in 1955. It was during this time that Johnny Spartos, one of the men running the original Quincy location, convinced Rosenberg to produce a donut with a handle specifically for dunking into a cup of coffee.
1963–1998: Bob Rosenberg In 1963, Rosenberg's son Bob 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, and Dunkin' Donuts locations varied greatly in their menu options, with some selling full breakfasts and others serving only doughnuts 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 was standardized, and various new menu items were introduced. In the early 1980s, counter service and ceramic coffee cups were replaced by self-service counters and paper cups. The chain went public in 1968 and was acquired by Baskin-Robbins owner Allied Lyons in 1990.
Dunkin' Donuts expanded in the 1990s by buying out two rival chains: Mister Donut (which was founded by Bill Rosenberg's former partner Harry Winokur) and Dawn Donuts.
1998–present: After Bob Rosenberg
The 'Dunkin' Donut' with a handle fashioned on it was discontinued in 2003 (except in Singapore) because it was hand-cut and uneconomical compared to machine-cut doughnuts.
In 2004, the company's headquarters were relocated to Canton, Massachusetts. 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. By 2010, Dunkin' Donuts' global sales were $6 billion.
In June 2013, Dunkin' Donuts unveiled a new store design, the brand's first in almost seven years.
The Dunkin' Donuts location in Natick, Massachusetts launched a program to test the concept of curbside pickup in December 2016.
In January 2018, Dunkin' Donuts started opening new concept locations, beginning in Quincy, featuring modern decor, cold beverages on tap and a single-cup brewing machine, more packaged takeout 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—removing "Donuts" from the name.
In February 2018, Dunkin' announced plans to phase out polystyrene foam cups globally for environmental purposes by April 2020.
In July 2018, Dave Hoffmann took over from Nigel Travis to become the CEO. His stated goal for the company was 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. In late 2018, Dunkin' installed espresso machines at all possible locations and launched espresso products using a new recipe.
In June 2019, Dunkin' partnered with Grubhub to begin the rollout of its new Dunkin' Delivers service. Later in July 2019, Dunkin' partnered with Beyond Meat to introduce a meatless breakfast sandwich in Manhattan, becoming the first U.S. restaurant brand to serve Beyond Sausage. The sandwich launched nationally later in 2019.
In September 2019, the New York attorney general's office alleged in a lawsuit that Dunkin' mishandled a series of cyberattacks that were directed at customers using the Dunkin' mobile app. These attacks took place in early 2015 and thousands of usernames and passwords were stolen. The state lawsuit alleges that Dunkin' employees knew about these attacks, but failed to take appropriate action.
In October 2020, Dunkin' Brands stated that the company was in conversation with Inspire Brands, a private equity-backed company, negotiating to sell the company. They agreed to a deal that was announced on Saturday, October 31, 2020. Inspire Brands bought Dunkin' Brands for $11.3 billion, which included Dunkin' Brands' debt that Inspire Brands would be paying off. Inspire paid $106.50 in cash for each of Dunkin' Brands' shares. On December 15, 2020, the acquisition was completed, and Dunkin' Brands ceased to exist as a separate company, with Dunkin', Baskin-Robbins, and the trademark management of Mister Donut, becoming part of Inspire Brands.
In May 2026, Dunkin' current parent company Inspire Brands signed a franchise agreement with Montreal-based holding company Foodtastic to bring the restaurant chain back to Canada eight years after the company ceased its operations in the North. Peter Mammas, the president and CEO of restaurant holding company Foodtastic said its return this time will be different, and that this time the chain’s focus will be on Canadian ownership. Mammas expects the first Dunkin’ cafes to open in Canada later this year. A year from now, he says the company will likely be able to open a cafe a week, and about 50 cafes a year. “We have boots on the ground, so we’re going to have local support to support the franchises,” he said. He also said the company will concentrate on opening stores in Quebec and Ontario for the first two years before opening cafes in the Maritimes and the West Coast.
Marketing
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 16 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 were featured in a series of advertisements of new products to boost summer sales. In 2006, 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." The commercial was interpreted as a deliberate mocking of Starbucks. The commercials' punchline 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. Further commercials in 2007 more directly mocked Starbucks, with a customer ordering a "large" and being chastised to use the term "dieci".
Rachael Ray starred in commercials for Dunkin' Donuts beginning in 2007. In May 2008, Dunkin' Donuts removed an online advertisement featuring Ray wearing a fringed black-and-white scarf, following criticism from commentator Michelle Malkin and others who claimed the garment resembled a keffiyeh and symbolized support for terrorism. Dunkin' Donuts pulled that commercial off the air, leading to criticism of the company pertaining to special interests.
In March 2009, the company unveiled the alternate slogan "You 'Kin Do It!" and launched a $100 million ad campaign promotion. In 2017, the company 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. The branding would be implemented in other locations in the latter half of 2018 if it was successful. The brand announced that it would be known simply as Dunkin' in September 2018.
In April 2018, Dunkin' Donuts teamed up with the Massachusetts shoe manufacturer, Saucony, to produce a strawberry-frosted doughnut themed running shoe to commemorate the 122nd running of the Boston Marathon. The Saucony X Dunkin' Kinvara 9 came in a doughnut box and the heel of the shoe was covered in rainbow sprinkles.
The chain is a favorite among celebrities. Ben Affleck began starring in commercials for the company along with his then-wife Jennifer Lopez in February 2023. The first aired during Super Bowl LVII. They starred in a follow up that first aired during Super Bowl LVIII, along with Affleck's long-time friend, Matt Damon, and former NFL star Tom Brady. The chain then announced it would add Affleck's specific order, an iced coffee with cream, sweet cold foam, and cinnamon sugar, via its limited-time DunKings Menu.
On July 29, 2025, Dunkin' launched a campaign dubbed the "King of Summer", featuring actor Gavin Casalegno advertising its fruit-flavored Summer Refreshers. Reception to the advertisement was mixed, as some social media users thought its mention of genetics evoked eugenicist ideas. The Dunkin' campaign launched less than a week after American Eagle launched its campaign "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans", which led to similar backlash.
On February 8, 2026, during Super Bowl LX, Ben Affleck appeared in a commercial that parodies Good Will Hunting, a film that Affleck co-wrote and starred in, as a 1990s sitcom. He portrays "Will Dunkin'" a parody of Damon's character, "Will Hunting", where he's cast alongside 1990s sitcom stars such as Jason Alexander, Jennifer Aniston, Jasmine Guy, Alfonso Ribeiro, Matt LeBlanc, and Jaleel White. Tom Brady also appears in the commercial.
Logo