Dunkin’ Donuts Will Open Western Distribution Hub

Dunkin’ Donuts has taken another step toward its goal of doubling its store count in the United States within 20 years. A new food, paper and equipment distribution center in Phoenix, due to open in October, will be the chain’s seventh warehouse and its first west of the Mississippi River.

The Canton, Mass., company, which has been opening new stores in the South and Midwest, has inked an agreement with the NDCP, the franchisee-owned distribution and purchasing cooperative, to lease the Phoenix location. The NDCP is the exclusive supply-chain provider for all Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the continental U.S.

The new distribution center will deliver essentially all food, paper, equipment and supplies to Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants and provide franchisees in new markets with the same product costs as franchisees in the more highly built-out, established markets. Uniform product costs will be phased in over a three-year period beginning in 2012.

There are nearly 7,000 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the U.S. today. In ’11, Dunkin’ Donuts opened 243 net new domestic units, and has said it plans to open 260 to 280 net domestic Dunkin’ locations in `12. Last year, it signed store development agreements in key western markets including Denver; Houston; Albuquerque, N.M.; Lincoln, Neb.; and San Antonio and El Paso, Texas.