Quick service restaurant chains specializing in donuts continue to extend their brands into retail food categories. This is often—but not always—accomplished through licensing agreements.
Some recent examples:
- Dunkin’ Donuts signed Coca-Cola in 2016 for ready-to-drink coffee beverages, with a launch expected in early 2017. Deals previously in place include J.M. Smucker for coffee, Keurig Green Mountain for individual coffee pods, and WhiteWave for coffee creamers.
- Krispy Kreme’s 2016 licensing deals included partnerships with Cheerwine and General Mills. The former is marketing soft drinks that taste like the original Cheerwine (a cherry-based North Carolina favorite) infused with the taste of Krispy Kreme’s glazed donut, while the latter is selling Betty Crocker cake mixes featuring the same glazed flavor. Other licensees for the brand have included International Marketing Systems for ready-to-drink iced coffees and Massimo Zenetti for coffee in a variety of forms.
- Tim Horton’s, the Canadian chain that is expanding into the U.S., distributes its own coffee, single-serve pods (for coffee and tea), specialty tea, and hot chocolate and cappuccino mixes, to retailers in Canada.
For the most part, licensing and brand-extension activity is firmly beverage- and especially coffee-centric, which makes sense given that donuts and coffee are so complementary, both in the in-store and at-home experiences and in the flavor profiles.
Comments are closed.