Dunkin Donuts is a great American multinational company and a quick service restaurant. William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts founded it in 1950. Dunkin Donuts holds approximately 12000 restaurants in 46 countries. It serves a variety of hot and cold beverages along with freshly baked and prepared bagels , donuts and other variety of baked goods.
In January 2018 Dunkin announced some modifications by introducing modern interior decor , some new beverages and baked goods for take away and installed drive-thru in rest of the countries as well.
“We have focused on core categories, shut our most unprofitable stores, cut back on restaurant operating costs and overheads, and launched innovations including tea, to drive growth,” a Jubilant Food Work person said.
In US, over the last few years, Dunkin has seen a steady revenue growth. But why is this chain struggling in India? Where did they went wrong?
Dunkin Donuts in India:
Exclusive franchising right of Dunkin granted was granted to Jubilant Food Works in 2012. In 2012, Jubilant Food Works opened its first Dunkin Donuts in India. And eventually expanded to 77 stores across the country within a short time . However by the end of June, their stores went down from 77 to 37.
Dunkin Donuts considered as a synonym for breakfast in the whole world. It serves all kinds of fresh baked items on it’s menu. It tried to trigger and identify some regional preferred items to cater local taste buds. Despite their several attempts , they failed to please the Indian taste. Due to lack of profitability, Dunkin compelled to shut down many of it’s store in India in less than 2 years.
#dunkindonutsindia mutton burger ..cold and just horrible …ordered 2 other burgers both cold too pic.twitter.com/sFZX57FS7b
— Double D (@ijustdoubled) May 24, 2014
What went wrong with Dunkin in India?
Initially when Dunkin Donuts came in India, it launched it’s typical menu with only breakfast options to choose from along with their hot and cold beverages . It didn’t took much long to figure out that Indians did not prefer these take away outlets in their breakfast. Dunkin tried to localize it’s menu by introducing flavors preferred by the Indian people such as Mango and Lychee . It introduced it’s savory items such as vegetarian and non vegetarian variety of burgers.
Indians prefer their regular meal over western baked sweet goods. As donuts was considered as more of a sweet pastry to have once in a while rather than having it for breakfast . Moreover, Indian population is not that crazy about coffee , rather than it prefer Tea over coffee. By introducing vegetarian burgers in it’s menu Dunkin tried to attract the non meat eaters of the country. Though this idea increased Dunkin’s sale, it wasn’t going well with it’s worldwide reputation . This outlet was known for it’s coffee variations and a variety of baked donuts with different glaze.
Dunkin tried it’s best by announcing Diwali ( Indian festival) donuts. What unique thing about this new donut; it offered savory taste of chickpea and other flavors rather than it’s sweet taste. But this effort still came of no use.
It is not the first time DD has experienced the downfall of their franchise in other countries. Dunkin has also failed to satisfy Chinese taste buds. One cannot imagine whether Dunkin Donuts will increase it’s sales in India or it will experience the same as it had in China. But it is worth giving it another shot in the world’s largest country , India.
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