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Don Daszkowski
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By Don Daszkowski, About.com Guide to Franchises

Dunkin' Donuts Expansion Plan Will Hurt Some Existing Franchisees

Monday May 5, 2008
According to a New York Daily News article by Cindy Gluck, a franchisee of Dunkin' Donuts, the company is looking for reasons to sue existing single-unit franchisees in order to replace them with multi-unit franchisees.

"America may run on Dunkin', but Dunkin' Donuts is running me out of business. I wanted our store manager to share in our success, I offered to sell him a 15% stake. I wanted everything to be upfront, so I immediately notified Dunkin' Donuts. Dunkin' said that even though the transaction had yet to be completed - and even though I had notified the company beforehand - I had still violated their policies." Says Cindy Gluck, Dunkin' Donuts franchisee.

Dunkin' Donuts is suing Cindy and her partner and trying to force them to sell their 2 locations for 50% of what the stores are actually worth. Dunkin’ Donuts plans to sell these stores to multi-unit franchisees who have the capability of opening 5 or more locations..

In order to compete with Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts has announced a plan to open 15,000 stores by 2016. The fastest way to do this is to have their multi-unit franchise owners expand by opening more locations. To become a Dunkin' Donuts franchisee, you are now required to have a net worth for 5 restaurants at a minimum of $1.5 million and $750,000 in cash reserves. If you are thinking about a partnership, go ahead, but there is one caveat; one single candidate must personally meet the financial qualifications. Also, if you want more units you have to expand at the rate of 5 at a time. Based on all this information, I am not sure if opening a Dunkin' Donuts franchise is such a great idea.

Photo: Tim Boyle / Getty Images

Comments
May 5, 2008 at 7:22 pm
(1) Angela says:

Wow, they want people to sell their locations for half price? That’s cold.

May 6, 2008 at 8:58 am
(2) Jim says:

You are “not sure if opening a Dunkin Donuts is such a good idea”.

Why because they require 1.5 Million Net worth?

Or is because it’s not one of the deals you sell?

November 1, 2008 at 3:14 pm
(3) GMC says:

It is too bad that some big businesses today are running the real american entrepenuers out of business.

February 21, 2009 at 11:50 am
(4) Anand says:

They are actually loosing credibility by doing this. Everyone deserve a chance to come up. I hope they will stop pushing down those who are coming up

May 16, 2009 at 7:04 am
(5) John says:

That’s Dunkin Madness. It smacks of greed and desperation if you ask me…

June 21, 2009 at 2:48 am
(6) alex says:

multi-unit franchisees maybe efective…

Buzz News

July 27, 2009 at 11:52 pm
(7) Best 32 LCD TV says:

Makes it almost impossible for the small entrepreneur if you ask me…

July 27, 2009 at 11:54 pm
(8) best 32 lcd tv says:

makes it almost impossible for the small entrepreneur if you ask me..

July 31, 2009 at 8:16 pm
(9) beat maker says:

Good to hear but not an affect of me…

forex autopilot beat maker

August 15, 2009 at 1:15 am
(10) Mark says:

Is the reason of suiing in itself not bad enough for them to lose all the lawsuits?

September 18, 2009 at 11:40 am
(11) Dorothy says:

Everyone deserve a chance to come up. I do not think they are loosing credibility by doing this. I hope they will grow more as their plan are very aggressive.
Winter Backpacking

September 28, 2009 at 12:33 pm
(12) shoprider sovereign says:

I think dunkin donuts has expanded too much. Even the mighty starbucks is not doing so well, the recession will shake out the poor performers

October 16, 2009 at 1:46 pm
(13) xav says:

i love dunkin donuts

October 29, 2009 at 11:24 pm
(14) Commodity Broker says:

I can’t believe dunkin id prospering and krispy creme is scaling back. Krispy creme came up way too fast!

Managed Futures

November 1, 2009 at 5:25 am
(15) medigap policies says:

I used to work at a Dunkin Doughnuts years ago lol. Shame they treat their franchises like this.

November 1, 2009 at 11:14 am
(16) webgirl says:

This is kinda old news but I remember a long time back thinking about how long the Dunkin Donuts thing can go on with this new health craze sneaking through.

November 3, 2009 at 7:13 pm
(17) JC says:

Im eating donuts as Im reading this.. :D

November 26, 2009 at 10:47 am
(18) zhu zhu says:

From what I can see, dunkin donuts sales have been on a slightly negative trend. I attribute this to growing health-consciousness.

November 28, 2009 at 2:10 am
(19) 123 power system says:

I love those things, one store opened by my house not to log ago, the line was mile long.

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