Update on Feb. 7: Marathon Petroleum Corp. responded to the report below with the following statement:
“Speedway is ending its franchise relationship with Dunkin’ Donuts at its retail locations. At approximately 450 stores, Speedway proprietary coffee and doughnuts will replace the Dunkin’ offer. We believe this change will enhance our operating flexibility as well as our ability to compete in the market from a retail price and value to the customer standpoint. Speedway will replace Dunkin’ equipment with its state-of-the-art bean-to-cup machines, which deliver always fresh, high-quality coffee to our customers 24/7. These upgrades are scheduled to begin in April 2020 and are targeted to complete in Q4 2020.”
FINDLAY, Ohio, and CANTON, Mass. — Marathon Petroleum Corp. will close 450 Speedway-operated Dunkin’ units this year, Dunkin’ Brands said in its fourth-quarter 2019 earnings statement.
These locations represented less than 0.5% of U.S. annual systemwide Dunkin' sales in 2019, which sparked the closings, the company said. They are expected to be completed by fiscal year-end 2020.
Neither Marathon Petroleum nor Speedway responded to CSP Daily News requests to comment on the closings.
- Speedway is No. 3 on CSP’s 2019 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by number of company-owned retail locations.
"We will be exiting 450 limited-menu Dunkin' Speedway-owned and -operated locations throughout 2020, closing under a termination agreement entered into with Speedway,” said Kate Jasponm, chief financial officer of Dunkin’ Brands. “These limited-menu locations are lower-volume units, in total representing less than 0.5% of Dunkin' U.S. annual systemwide sales. By exiting these sites, with minimal financial impact, we're confident we'll be better positioned to serve many of these trade areas in the coming years with new Dunkin' NextGen restaurants that offer a broader menu."
Dunkin’ will open 200 to 250 new U.S. units that will generate an estimated $140 million in systemwide sales in 2020, the company said. It will report development results both with and without the Speedway closures included until the exit is completed.
This isn’t the first time Speedway has closed Dunkin’ locations. Back when the chain was its own limited liability company (LLC), it closed approximately 100 franchise-owned, Speedway-operated Dunkin’ kiosks from 2015 to 2016. These Speedway locations represented only 0.1% of Dunkin’ U.S. sales, a Dunkin’ spokesperson told CSP Daily News at the time.
Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin’ has nearly 13,000 locations in 43 countries. The QSR chain is a division of Dunkin’ Brands Inc.
Findlay, Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum is an integrated downstream energy company. It operates 16 refineries, and its marketing system includes approximately 7,800 branded U.S. locations, including about 5,600 Marathon-branded retail outlets. It also owns the general partner and majority limited partner interest in midstream marketing company MPLX. Marathon Petroleum subsidiary Speedway LLC, Enon, Ohio, owns and operates approximately 4,000 convenience stores in 30 states under the brands Speedway, SuperAmerica, Arco and others.
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