When is Dunkin’s IPO, and can I buy shares?
Inspire has not set a date yet for its stock market debut, announced the price per share, or even disclosed the stock’s ticker symbol. Typically, companies launch their shares six to 12 months after first filing with the SEC.
Buying shares at the IPO price can be tricky. Inspire will select a group of Wall Street investment banks to manage the deal and allocate shares, but most are typically reserved for large funds and wealthy individuals. However, retail brokerages like Fidelity, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab sometimes get to sell IPO shares to their customers.
Didn’t Dunkin’ already do an IPO?
The region’s most popular doughnut chain, started by Bill Rosenberg in Quincy in 1948 as the Open Kettle, has made more ownership zigzags than there are sprinkles on your vanilla frosted.
Rosenberg first listed Dunkin’s shares in 1968 and sold the chain to British conglomerate Allied-Lyons in 1990 for $325 million. In 2005, three private equity firms bought Dunkin’ for $2.4 billion and took it public again in 2011.
In 2020, Inspire and its investment firm partner Roark Capital bought it and combined it with the other restaurant chains Inspire owned. So this would be Dunkin’s third IPO in its almost 80-year history.
After that Super Bowl ad with Affleck and company, not to mention the new dirty sodas, Dunkin’ must be on fire. So how is the chain doing?
Did we mention this was a confidential filing? Since 2012, the SEC has allowed companies to make their initial IPO filings privately, as the company works to address any issues raised by regulators.
But well before Inspire sells any shares, it will have to file an updated, public registration statement. Stay tuned for that filing, which will include goodies like future expansion plans, executive compensation, and several years of financial results.
Inspire has previously disclosed that Dunkin’ had sales of $14.5 billion last year across more than 14,000 locations in 39 countries (including 1,030 in Massachusetts). That’s up from $9.2 billion at more than 9,100 locations in 2019, the year before Inspire bought Dunkin. (Inspire’s entire lineup of restaurant chains had sales of $33.4 billion at more than 33,000 locations last year.)
If sales are up since Inspire bought Dunkin’, why would they want to sell stock and share ownership?
Inspire and Roark paid $8.8 billion for Dunkin’ and also assumed another $2.5 billion of debt. The funds raised by selling shares in the IPO will help them pay off some of the money they borrowed to acquire Dunkin’. It’s the standard playbook private equity firms run over and over again.
Also, after a few quiet years, the IPO market has gotten pretty active since the middle of 2025. Already, 55 companies in the US have raised $18 billion by going public this year and another 89 companies have registered to go public, according to research firm Renaissance Capital.
Could the deal ruin my turkey sausage, egg and cheese? Would Dunkin’ do better under private or public ownership?
That’s definitely a debate for 3 a.m. over hot black coffee and a box of munchkins at one of the chain’s 24-hour locations.
Under private ownership, companies often slash jobs and costs or make other dramatic moves that would spook stock market investors. But when a company is public, it has to report results every three months and investors may pummel its stock price for even minor mistakes, so there’s still a lot of financial pressure.
For as long as Dunkin’ has been around, it seems, people have complained that new owners ruined the doughnuts or watered down the coffee. In March, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blasted the chain for the amount of added sugar in its drinks.
The (absolutely gross) white hot chocolate came out in 2006, under the triple private equity firm ownership. But it was in 2013, after the chain had gone public again, that it misfired with chicken sandwiches.
As for maintaining Dunkin’s image, the great slogan “America Runs on Dunkin’” came out in 2006 under private equity ownership, but the move to drop “Donuts” from its name in 2018 happened after the company had gone public.
Which way will it go this time? As Big Ben said in his 2024 Dunkin’ commercial, “Underestimate Boston at your peril.”
Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.
