Dunkin'
Coffee and donut chain · 14,241+ locations · Nationwide in the US, plus nearly 40 international markets
Dunkin' has been New York's most common chain store for 18 years running, with 623 locations. Nearly all belong to franchisees; the brand belongs to Roark Capital's Inspire Brands. Those franchisees have drawn child-labor penalties in at least three states and a $1.5 million New York City scheduling settlement.
The Big Picture
Almost all of Dunkin's 9,999 US restaurants belong to franchisees, and regulators have repeatedly acted against those franchisees over child labor, late pay and New York City scheduling rules. Their fees and royalties, $837 million in 2025, go to Inspire Brands, which bought Dunkin' for $11.3 billion in 2020. Inspire is majority-owned by the private equity firm Roark Capital.
The Dirty Details
Ownership
Inspire BrandsConglomerate
Inspire Brands is the Atlanta multi-brand restaurant company private equity firm Roark Capital formed in February 2018 by merging the parents of Arby's and Buffalo Wild Wings, and it has bought a brand a year since: Sonic in 2018, Jimmy John's in 2019, and Dunkin' Brands for $11.3 billion in December 2020, which brought Baskin-Robbins with it. Its own site puts the group at more than 33,400 restaurants and more than 2,500 franchisees across 55 global markets. Roark confidentially filed for an Inspire Brands IPO in May 2026 with proceeds reported as earmarked to repay debt; no S-1 was public on SEC EDGAR as of August 2026, so the company remains privately held. The two brands tracked here are both almost entirely franchised, which means the restaurants are owned by independent operators while the trademarks, the franchise agreements and the royalties sit inside Inspire.
Restaurants: 33,400+ (2026)
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Company data last updated September 2026
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