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Dunkin' Donuts Franchise Back In Guilford

HIGH POINT (Tuesday, May 30, 2006) - Dunkin' Donuts is making a comeback.

With the April launch of its hip new public relations campaign, the company is also opening new stores across the country — including one in Guilford County.

After a four-year absence from the county, the doughnut and coffee giant opened a store May 9 at 278 Eastchester Drive in High Point .

Store owner Arup Patel , said he bought into the franchise about a year and half ago, opening his first shop on Peters Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem. Looking to expand, Patel said High Point seemed an ideal location because there were no other Dunkin' Donuts in the area.

"Dunkin' Donuts has a plan to open quite a bit of stores around High Point, Winston-Salem (and) Greensboro in the Triad area," Patel said.

Andrew Mastrangelo, a spokesman for Dunkin' Donuts, said the company is planning to open 5,100 more stores in the United States by 2020.

The expansions are currently focused farther west , starting in Nashville, and to the south, starting in Charlotte, Mastrangelo said. He thinks the High Point store and any others in the Triad that may follow will be offshoots of the Charlotte expansion plan.

While some might think the company was planning to battle Krispy Kreme for the Southern doughnut market, Mastrangelo said it isn't so.

"We're a coffee business. It's a strange thing because our name is Dunkin' Donuts, but almost 63 percent of our sales are beverage-based," Mastrangelo said.

Triad residents visiting the High Point store one recent morning spoke highly of the coffee, but most were there for the doughnuts.

Tami Ike, of High Point, said she prefers Dunkin' Donuts "because they're not as sugary" as Krispy Kreme .

"I've been waiting and waiting for it (the store) to open," Ike said. "I've driven by every day."

Jason Spengler, of Randelman, grew up eating Dunkin' Donuts in Pennsylvania and enjoys the chain's variety of doughnuts . He especially missed the maple-frosted and peanut-covered doughnuts, which aren't found anywhere else in the area.

For Nick Lorenz, of High Point, it's all about the Munchkins.

"They keep you skinny," he said. They're so small "it doesn't count if you eat 50."

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