After going public in 2011, Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc., Canton, Mass., in 2012 detailed plans on how it expects to grow the business. The plans include new product introductions at Dunkin’ Donuts stores and a new ice cream production strategy for Baskin-Robbins.

Dunkin’ Brands on July 26, 2011, announced an initial public offering of 22,250,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $19 per share on The NASDAQ Global Select Market. A successful i.p.o. led to a closing price of $28.39 per share on July 28, 2011. The shares in the summer of 2012 reached a high of $37.02 and were trading above $30 in mid-September 2012.


The current fiscal year has seen progress. For the six months ended June 30, Dunkin’ Brands had total revenues of $324.8 million, up from $296.2 million in the same time period of the previous year, and net income of $44.4 million, up from $15.4 million.

“It seems only like yesterday that we were actually at NASDAQ talking about our i.p.o.,” said Nigel Travis, chief executive officer of Dunkin’ Brands, in a July 26 earnings conference call. “But our strong performance this past year clearly demonstrates the platform for growth that we laid out at the time of our i.p.o. Our active-light, nearly 100% franchise model continues to generate consistent revenue growth and high margins.”

He spoke about such new Dunkin’ Donuts items as a breakfast burrito in steak and vegetable varieties.

“Our new bakery sandwich line continues to drive traffic and sales in the p.m. day part, and we added a roast beef sandwich to this lineup in key northeastern markets, which provided a nice boost to the category in June,” Mr. Travis said.

Baskin-Robbins will close its Peterborough, Ont., manufacturing plant, which supplies ice cream to certain of the brand’s international markets. Dallas-based Dean Foods now will produce the ice cream, which will enable Baskin-Robbins to provide ice cream to a growing number of international franchisees. Because of the closing, the company estimates charges between $16 million and $18 million, of which $4 million is a non-cash charge.

“The plant supplies ice cream to about one-third of the brand’s international locations, which represent more than half of this business segment’s profitability,” said Neil Moses, chief global strategy officer for Dunkin’ Brands Group. “Baskin-Robbins International is one of our fastest-growing segments, and the Peterborough plant has been running 24/7 and is at capacity.

“Moving our international ice cream production to a trusted long-term dairy manufacturing partner, Dean Foods, is aligned with our active-light model and will generate significant annual savings for the company.”

In fiscal 2012, Dunkin’ Brands had goals of Dunkin’ Donuts U.S. comparable store sales growth in the range of 4% to 5% and Baskin-Robbins U.S. comparable store sales growth in the range of 2% to 4%. The company in the fiscal year expects 260 and 280 net new restaurants for Dunkin’ Donuts U.S. and 400 to 450 net new units internationally for Dunkin’ Brands. Also in fiscal 2012, Dunkin’ Brands estimates revenue growth of 7% to 8% and adjusted earnings per share of $1.22 to $1.25.