The Boston Globe reports that Dunkin’ Donuts has engaged an executive chef to help it move beyond breakfast-oriented meals and offer all-day menus that can drive greater volume.
Stan Frankenthaler, a former local chef and restaurateur, is the company’s first executive chef. “As the company embarks on an ambitious expansion plan and faces continued threats from coffee behemoth Starbucks and others, it is also moving to break out of its morning-only identity,” the Globe writes. “The stuffed panini being tested in southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island represent the first step in a march toward all-day meals.”
Frankenthaler tells the Globe, ''For us, the exciting thing is, maybe you sell 20 panini a day per store, but that's [more than] 100,000 sandwiches a day," he says. ''Now you've got 100,000 people a day loving that sandwich. That's pretty cool."
Michael O'Donovan, the chain’s vice president of global research and development, tells the paper that the process of creating menu items has changed dramatically. The company ''used to think first about how to make 10 million of an item, then how to make just one," O'Donovan says. ''Now we start with one, not 10 million."
Also very clear is that Dunkin’ Donuts management sees Starbucks – which also has been introducing new menu items of late - as the opposition.
Stan Frankenthaler, a former local chef and restaurateur, is the company’s first executive chef. “As the company embarks on an ambitious expansion plan and faces continued threats from coffee behemoth Starbucks and others, it is also moving to break out of its morning-only identity,” the Globe writes. “The stuffed panini being tested in southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island represent the first step in a march toward all-day meals.”
Frankenthaler tells the Globe, ''For us, the exciting thing is, maybe you sell 20 panini a day per store, but that's [more than] 100,000 sandwiches a day," he says. ''Now you've got 100,000 people a day loving that sandwich. That's pretty cool."
Michael O'Donovan, the chain’s vice president of global research and development, tells the paper that the process of creating menu items has changed dramatically. The company ''used to think first about how to make 10 million of an item, then how to make just one," O'Donovan says. ''Now we start with one, not 10 million."
Also very clear is that Dunkin’ Donuts management sees Starbucks – which also has been introducing new menu items of late - as the opposition.
- KC's View:
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It is interesting that Dunkin’ Donuts sees Starbucks as the competition. Maybe for share of stomach, but besides the fact that they both sell coffee, there seem to be very similarities.
We suspect that Starbucks doesn’t worry too much about competition Dunkin’ Donuts. They have a bigger vision…and that’s one of the things that separate them.
