Dunkin Donuts announces California towns for first 5 restaurants

Dunkin' Donuts has announced that the company has filed for permits to open its first traditional restaurants in California.

The new restaurants are planned for Downey, Long Beach, Modesto, Santa Monica and Whittier. Specific locations and anticipated opening dates will be announced later this summer, with construction scheduled to begin later in June, months ahead of schedule, the restaurant chain said.

The new Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in Downey and Whittier will be operated by new franchisees Danny and Coby Sonenshine, founders of Prell Restaurant Group. In Long Beach, the Dunkin' Donuts restaurant will be operated by Frontier Restaurant Group. In Santa Monica, the restaurant will be operated by Gary Haar, an existing Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins franchisee with seven restaurants in New Jersey, and his business partner Steve Silverstein. And, in Modesto, the restaurant will be operated by Sizzling Donuts, LLC, an existing franchise group with Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in Colorado, Texas and Utah.

Since opening California for franchise development in 2013, Dunkin' Donuts has reached store development agreements for nearly 200 new restaurants so far. The company said it believes it can eventually have as many as 1,000 restaurants throughout the state. Dunkin' Donuts has already opened three non-traditional restaurants in California, including a recent Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin-Robbins combination location inside the Embassy Suites San Diego Bay Downtown Hotel.

More Dunkin' Donuts on the way

Dunkin' Donuts says a new franchise group Burton Restaurants, LLC plans to develop 14 restaurants in San Diego over the coming years. Mike Stout and Neal Wichard, leaders of a new franchise group, will develop 16 restaurants in Northern San Diego and Southern Inland Empire over the coming years. Their first restaurant is planned to open in 2015. Good Treats LLC, a new franchise group led by Bjorn Bayley and Johnny Andersen, will develop 14 restaurants throughout Glendale, Burbank and Santa Clarita Valley over the coming years. Their first restaurant is planned to open in 2016. The Tasty Group LLC, whose principals include local restaurateurs and developers David Ahn and BJ Kim, existing franchisee Dante Rizzo, and Frank Giardina, plans to develop two restaurants in Santa Barbara and eight restaurants throughout Ventura County over the coming years, with the first restaurant expected to open in 2016.

The company says franchise opportunities for Dunkin' Donuts still remain available throughout California in Fresno, Bakersfield and Santa Barbara, Northern California, and portions of Southern California.

In 1950, Bill Rosenberg opened the first Dunkin' Donuts restaurant in Quincy, Mass. The company now has nearly 11,000 restaurants in 33 countries worldwide. For the full-year 2013, Dunkin' Donuts' restaurants had global franchisee-reported sales of approximately $7.4 billion. Dunkin' Donuts sells more than 1.8 billion cups of hot and iced coffee globally every year.

"If not used within 18 minutes, Dunkin' Donuts coffee is discarded and a new carafe is freshly brewed," the company website says.