Dunkin' Brands, the parent company of Dunkin' and Baskin-Robbins, exceeded expectations in its most recent earnings report with delivery sales doubling.
Dave Hoffmann, Dunkin' Brands CEO, told Cheddar on Friday, that before the coronavirus outbreak, the company was heading towards its best quarter since 2013 already, but once the pandemic began it focused on adapting.
"We really worked on streamlining the operations for our franchisees to make the restaurants as flexible as possible with limited hours, limited menu. We called our limited menu Essentials," Hoffman said.
Luckily, 90 percent of the chain's transactions were some form of takeout prior to the crisis, according to the CEO, so it wasn't hard for them to pivot entirely in that direction.
"Our fleet of restaurants, 70 percent are drive-thrus, we've added 1,000 curbside locations to those non-drive thru sites as well. Our delivery footprint has nearly doubled during this, from 2,000 stores to 4,000," he said. "Our loyalty program has continued to increase. About one out of every five transactions is from a loyalty member."
Dunkin' Brands is 100 percent operated by franchisees and has almost 90 percent of its business open amid the pandemic. Hoffman said the company supported franchisees early on by making sure their liquidity was protected and took safety precautions at all locations so that workers feel protected.
"We got into this very early. We put our reputation aside and we talked about, you know nobody is going to remember an overreaction, but people will definitely remember an underreaction," he said.
Life after the pandemic is still unpredictable for most people, including business owners. The CEO said Dunkin' is taking it one day at a time and will continue to follow the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
