Dunkin’ Donuts has big Pa. plans

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Dunkin’ Donuts is planning to roll into the Pittsburgh region on a historic scale.

The Canton, Mass.-based chain announced last week it was planning to open 105 new restaurants in the city and throughout Allegheny County in the next several years. There are currently 10 Dunkin’ Donuts locations in the area.

The company said the expansion, through an agreement with Heartland Coffee Co. of Pittsburgh, was the largest store development deal in its 57-year history.

The expansion is part of a strategy to grow operations in existing markets and enter new ones across the country. The chain hopes to triple the number of Dunkin’ Donuts stores in the U.S. by 2020, to 15,000.

“We are making great strides in meeting our aggressive national expansion goals,” Robert Rodriguez, Dunkin’s brand president, said in a statement.

The new stores are scheduled to start opening within the next 18 months, according to the company. They will include free-standing stores and sites within shopping centers and stores.

Pittsburgh’s first Dunkin’ Donuts opened in 1972. The chain had 27 stores in the area by 1999, but that number has declined to just 10.

“We feel that Dunkin’ Donuts can fulfill a growing demand in the Pittsburgh marketplace,” Lynette McKee, Dunkin’s vice president of franchising, wrote in an e-mail message.

Dunkin’ said earlier this month that its packaged coffee will be sold by the likes of Wal-Mart, Kroger and CVS starting this month in a bid to get customers to brew the brand at home rather than just pick it up at Dunkin’ outlets.