Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc has signed a deal to take its eponymous doughnut chain to Vietnam as the company continues its push to expand internationally.
The company has signed a franchise agreement with Vietnam Food and Beverage Co. to develop Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants across the country over the next several years, with the first locations planned for the Ho Chi Minh City area.
The group’s restaurants in Vietnam will offer coffee and baked goods, including Dunkin’ Donuts Original Blend Coffee, doughnuts, breakfast and bakery sandwiches, frozen drinks, iced tea and other beverages. Dunkin’ said it also will offer regional menu items to cater to local Vietnamese tastes.
Dunkin’ Donuts has more than 10,000 restaurants around the world in 32 countries, including more than 1,450 locations in Southeast Asia. In 2012, the brand entered several new markets, including India and Guatemala, and announced expansions in a number of existing markets, including Chile, Colombia and Germany.
Dunkin’ Brands ice-cream chain – Baskin-Robbins, entered Vietnam in January 2012 and has 13 locations in the country.
Dunkin’s move comes only a few weeks after rival Starbucks Corp outlined details of its own planned move into Vietnam, saying it will open its first cafe in Ho Chi Minh City early next month, a bit later than its originally projected timeline of 2012.
John Culver, Starbucks’s president of China and the Asia Pacific region, has noted that Vietnam is the second-largest coffee-producing country in the world, behind Brazil, and that the company has been sourcing coffee from there for several years.
(Source: WSJ, ANT Consulting)