Dunkin’ Donuts plans to open 50 stores in Puerto Rico
Dunkin’ Donuts established itself in Puerto Rico in 2001 and closed in October 2014.
Less than two years after a court-ordered shutdown of all of it’s local Dunkin’ Donuts stores, Dunkin’ Brands announced Monday it is looking for a franchisee to re-enter the market to develop 50 restaurants throughout the island in the next seven years.
The Mass.-based coffee and baked goods chain is looking to recruit a franchisee with experience operating multi-unit foodservice concepts in Puerto Rico as well as acquiring and developing local real estate.
Qualified candidates should meet the minimum financial requirements for this opportunity, which are $5M liquidity and $10M in total net worth, the company said in a statement.
The initial focus area will target the Northeast areas of San Juan, Bayamón and Carolina with many of the restaurants across the market being a mixture of free-standing and in-line properties ranging from 100 to 175 square meters.
“With more than 11,700 restaurants in 43 countries, it’s evident that our brand resonates with all types of consumers,” said Grant Benson, vice president of global franchising and business development for Dunkin’ Brands.
“We’re excited to bring our value proposition — high-quality food and beverages, served fast in a friendly environment and at a great value — to areas throughout Puerto Rico, where we feel there is a significant demand for the brand’s offerings,” he said.
In October 2014, Dunkin’ Donuts pulled out of the market after ending its long-standing partnership with former franchisee Wometco Donas Inc., as this media outlet reported.
“Aside from brand growth, Puerto Rico represents a tremendous and unique opportunity for Dunkin’ Donuts. The development of 50 restaurants across the island could help boost the economy, with a franchisee creating up to a thousand jobs or more for local residents,” Benson said.
The Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in Puerto Rico would serve a wide range of delicious foods and beverages, including hot and iced coffee, hot and iced tea, espresso, lattes, cappuccinos, sandwiches, muffins, croissants and the brand’s signature donuts. The restaurants would also serve products that incorporate local flavors, such as “café con leche” and tropical flavored frozen and juice drinks.
Once it re-enters the market, the donut chain will be competing against the likes of Krispy Kreme and Starbucks for similar customers.
The shortcomings of this plan is relying on a single mega-franchisee as they had previously. This opportunity would be more successful if open to smaller single franchise holders particularly in smaller rural towns and leave multi franchise holders to the larger citys. The Puerto Rican discerning palate for locally grown coffee would be a great success for Dunkin Donuts especially with tropical flavored donuts like guava, pineapple and cheese fillings. Krispy Cream and Starbucks won’t be able to compete with that formula.
I corrently live in P.R and the areas you are choosing although it has a lot of traffic it doesn’t have the traffic of tourists, on a trip i recently went to to the mainland u.s.a i saw that there were many dunking donuts leading me to think that the prefferable market would be areas where there are more tourists like: condado, Dorado these areas actually have a lot of tourist do to the fact that they have a lot of hotel’s/ it also contains a lot of foot traffic, im surten that if a store was to be build there it would benefit.
Is this still happening…the comeback of DD? The original article is from 2016.
Would like to have more información about the reopening of Dunkin Donuts if this is really happening.