Inspire Brands to buy Dunkin' Brands donut company for $8.8 billion
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The Dunkin' chain, created in 1950 in the US north-eastern state of Massachusetts, is known for its variety of doughnuts as well as its coffee and breakfast sandwiches.
Baskin-Robbins started in 1945 in California and is famous for its 31 flavours of ice cream.
The two brands account for more than 20,000 distribution points in more than 60 countries.
They have suffered somewhat from the pandemic and the resulting temporary or permanent closures of stores, with turnover of their parent company having fallen by six per cent in total over the first nine months of the year.
A former subsidiary of the Allied Domecq group, Dunkin' Brands was bought by the French wine and spirits group Pernod Ricard in 2005 and sold a year later for $2.4 billion to three investment funds: Bain Capital, Carlyle and Thomas H. Lee.
