Arby’s slogan is “We have the meats,” and it looks like they also have the coins. According to reports, Inspire Brands, owner of Arby’s, will acquire Dunkin’ Brands Group for a total of $11.3 billion. Inspire Brands also owns Jimmy John’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Sonic Drive-In, while Dunkin’ owns Baskin-Robbins.
Co-Founder and CEO of Inspire Brands, Paul Brown, said in a statement. “By joining Inspire, these brands will add complementary guest experiences and occasions to our current portfolio.” Brown also stated, “Further, they will strengthen Inspire through their scaled international platform and robust consumer packaged goods licensing infrastructure, as well as add more than 15 million loyalty members.”
When the pandemic first hit, it was reported that Dunkin’ was facing a deficit with some stores seeing a 18.7% decrease in sales during the second quarter of 2020. It was also reported that they initially planned to close around 800 stores this year with the majority of those locations within Speedway gas stations.
To date, there are 12,500 Dunkin’ stores and 8,000 Baskin-Robbins outlets worldwide, also according to the Washington Post.
According to The Washington Post,” Atlanta’s Inspire Brands, which was founded in 2018, is rapidly joining the largest restaurant groups in the U.S. In addition to Buffalo Wild Wings and Arby’s, it owns the Sonic burger chain, Jimmy John’s restaurants and Rusty Taco. It has annual sales of more than $14 billion.”
Inspire Brands said it expects the deal to close by the end of the year.