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SPECIALFEATURE: BRANDS DIVERSIFYING


Earning dough


Dunkin’ Brands are expanding into the UK market


J


im Johnston, UK General Manager for Dunkin’ Brands, talks to Franchisor News about the franchise partnership between Baskin-Robbins and Cineworld and the plans to roll out Dunkin’


Donuts outlets across the UK


Tell us about the recent franchise partnership with Cineworld The business thinking is twofold. For Cineworld, the franchisee, they take complementary brands like Baskin-Robbins, but they’re not adding on many additional rents, utilities, etc, so it’s a very attractive business model. For us, we are building the brand across the country – 45 locations where we’ve otherwise no presence. For instance, there’s a Chichester Cineworld with a Baskin-Robbins franchise. Now, if a potential franchisee wanted to open [a Baskin-Robbins store] in Chichester’s high street, it would be great. Before now, the risk would have been that we were not well known in the area.


What about Baskin Robbins outlets outside of the Cineworld deal? For Baskin-Robbins we are interested in single unit franchisees. Baskin-Robbins has 155 stores altogether, 28 on the high street mainly in the London/Middlesex area. The Cineworld puts us in a good position to roll out. Baskin-Robbins is a treat, a luxury-type item – customers will come from around five to seven miles away especially for it, so it’s also about having the right demographic spending power in the community.


40 | www.franchisornews.co.uk


We’ll also consider developing retail partnerships with other entertainment venues: bowling, bingo, Wacky Warehouse- style play areas. We are in the 02 Arena, for instance. The first thing you see when you go in there is a Baskin-Robbins! It definitely has a youth following and appeals to the younger market, so we are all over social media – a presence on Twitter, Facebook, etc, is essential.


You are also expanding the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise network into the UK. It was tried out in the 1990s but didn’t work, what are the plans this time? There’s three open in total, Harrow last December, Chelmsford in February, Cambridge in April and we’re opening two more in June… After that, it’s effectively one a month, well, forever! We’re engaging multi-unit franchisees in 25-store development agreements, opening five a year with scope as to where the sites are. This is a different offer to the 90s. In the US, Dunkin’ is very much seen as a beverage company. Dunkin’ now is donuts, but also frozen drinks, coffees, pastries, savouries, sandwiches. The coffee is important and is a lower price than most of the competition and it’s also about speed – your coffee will be around £1.59 and take 30 seconds. We deliberately set the pricing so that it’s positioned properly in the marketplace but still offering something unique.


How are you marketing the Dunkin’ Donuts brand to the UK? We spend on marketing locally – local radio


and newspapers, a leafleting campaign and so on, to make sure the local community are aware of the stores. Television advertising, if we do it, may be in two to three years and even then it will be regional. We want to make sure the money we spend on marketing turns profitable for the franchisee rather than a national campaign.


What is the key demographic for the Dunkin’ Donuts products? When it comes to the typical customer of Dunkin’ Donuts, there are three areas: 1. A ‘ritual’ consumer with an every day visit. They come in for a filter coffee and perhaps a donut – there’s a saying in the US: “America runs on Dunkin’” 2. The ‘reward’ visitor – for the office or the kids or for themselves 3. The iced and frozen beverages are another draw – some people go to Dunkin’ for those alone


Why launch Dunkin’ Donuts now? With Dunkin’ Donuts, now is the right time to launch a brand that is a coffee shop with a difference. It’s a great product and good value for money.


Any thoughts on the future of the high street? It’s undoubtedly a challenging environment, with more people buying online these days. A good, varied high street is somewhere people will still go to, still walk up and down, be in their community – a day out. I think the high street has a brighter future than the big retail outlets. n


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