Dunkin' Brands Group (DNKN) is going more global than ever before. The parent company of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins announced today that it plans to open between 685 and 800 new locations worldwide in 2014.
This latest announcement comes on the heels of already big growth. In 2013, the company added 790 net new Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins shops around the world, about half in the United States.
There were 371 new Dunkin' Donuts restaurants opened in the U.S. last year. Baskin-Robbins opened four new locations in the U.S. in 2013. Overseas, Dunkin' Donuts opened 138 new restaurants in 2013 and Baskin-Robbins opened 277 new locations outside the U.S.
The U.S. continues to be a major growth area for the company, with around half of this year's new stores expected to open in the U.S. The company expects to eventually reach 15,000 Dunkin' Donuts stores throughout the nation, nearly double its current count.
Abroad, the company is making major headway in China, where a master franchise agreement with Fast Gourmet Group and another licensing agreement will put 100 new Dunkin' Donuts in East China and 375 Baskin-Robbinses throughout the country over the next decade.
At the end of fiscal 2013, Dunkin' Brands had nearly 11,000 Dunkin' Donuts restaurants and more than 7,250 Baskin-Robbins restaurants.
"We believe a major contributor to our strong year-over-year growth is the disciplined approach we consistently take to improving franchisee economics," said Chairman and CEO Nigel Travis in a statement today.
