Peter Mammas was intrigued when one of his family members started pumping up her favourite donut shop.

“Truthfully, this all started with my daughter going to school in Boston, and she started going to Dunkin’ because she was telling me that it’s a great brand and we should bring it to Canada. When I visited her, I would try different products that Dunkin’ had and I quickly realized that their coffees and their refreshers and their protein drinks are something that the Canadian market could benefit from,” Mammas, the chief executive officer of Foodtastic, told FoodNX.

“I found their products better than what’s being offered at Tim’s (Hortons) and (McDonalds) McCafé right now, so we made a deal with Inspire to bring them over to Canada.”

The restaurant operator now proposes to create hundreds of new Dunkin’ locations over the next 10 years.

Deal worth estimated $1 billion over 10 years

The Montreal-based firm signed a master franchising agreement with Inspire Brands — owner of Dunkin’, as well as other restaurant brands such as Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings and SONIC — to open Canadian locations as early as this year.

Dunkin’ (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts) was originally founded in 1950, and is the largest coffee and donuts brand in the U.S., with more than 14,000 restaurants in nearly 40 global markets.

“It’s a pretty big deal. At Foodtastic, we’re currently opening about two restaurants a week. I think within 12 months, we’ll be adding a Dunkin’ a week to that total so we’ll be up to about 150 new stores a year,” Mammas said.

“Over the next 10 years, we see an investment of close to $1 billion.”

Foodtastic is a Canadian franchisor with a portfolio of 27 brands and over 1,200 establishments across the country. Recently, it purchased Edmonton restaurant brand Central Social Hall, with an eye to expand from its two Edmonton locations.

Foodtastic will manage market development, franchisee recruitment and operations in Canada, the company said. Dunkin’s menu features hot and iced coffees, espresso beverages, teas, donuts, sandwiches and snacks.

The first batch of stores will be in GTA and Montreal, then it will move west to Alberta and B.C., then into the Maritime provinces, Mammas said.

Learned from Jimmy John’s experience

This isn’t the first time Foodtastic has worked with Inspire Brands to bring a U.S. franchise to Canada. Last year, it opened a number of locations of sandwich-maker Jimmy John’s.

For Foodtastic, the experience should help make the Dunkin’ rollout smoother. “I think there were a lot of learnings and also how to work with Inspire themselves, so Dunkin’ is going to benefit from that: we know how Inspire works and how the teams could bring things together.”

One thing Foodtastic did learn was where to source supplies for the locations.

“There were some learnings on Jimmy John’s about bringing some equipment over from the States; that kind of slowed us down. But now in the last year, we’ve been sourcing a lot more stuff out of Canada, so Dunkin’ is going to directly benefit from that,” Mammas said.

The donut franchise did have locations in Canada but it left altogether in 2018. The company was successfully sued by Quebec franchise owners in 2016 over its level of promotions.

Who is the ideal franchisee?

When it comes to franchise owners, the company is looking for dedicated persons, Mammas explained: “Somebody who’s hard working, who loves the brand, who supports the community. We don’t really want investors; we want people who are going to operate and take care of their customers.”

“We have the infrastructure to operate all these restaurants and support them so we’re going to be franchising them to local operators; people who will own the Dunkin’ in their communities, and we’ll be supporting them operationally and through marketing,” he said.

The first store grand openings — a process which usually takes about six months from start to finish — will be late 2026 or early 2027, according to Mammas.

The company has an ambitious goal. “We plan to open 50 a year, so hopefully in 10 years, we should have close to 500 stores.”