Dunkin’ returns to Canada with plan for hundreds of locations
Dunkin’ is betting Canada wants a second morning ritual. The chain plans hundreds of stores, but it returns to a market ruled by Tim Hortons and hard lessons from its last exit.
Dunkin’ is trying Canada again, and this time it is arriving with a much bigger playbook. The chain signed a master franchising agreement with Foodtastic on May 12, 2026, giving the Montreal-based operator exclusive national rights to develop Dunkin’ through both corporate and franchise-run stores, with the first Canadian location expected in late 2026.
The scale of the ambition is the point. Peter Mammas, Foodtastic’s founder and chief executive, has said the chain could eventually reach 600 to 700 Canadian locations, including nearly 200 in Quebec. Early reporting points to Toronto and Montreal as the likely starting markets, a sensible choice for a brand that needs dense traffic, commuter coffee habits and enough breakfast demand to support a fast rollout.
For Dunkin’, the comeback has nostalgia value, but the real question is whether the brand can fit Canadian expectations better than it did before. Inspire Brands said the menu will include hot and iced coffee, espresso beverages, teas, donuts, sandwiches and snacks, which suggests a full coffee-and-breakfast return rather than a stripped-down espresso push. That matters in Canada, where coffee is not a novelty category. It is a daily utility, and convenience usually wins when the cup is decent and the handoff is quick.
The chain has been here before. Dunkin’ once operated more than 200 Canadian locations, then left the market in 2018 after Quebec franchisees successfully sued over brand promotion. A Quebec Superior Court ruling ordered Dunkin’ to pay $16.4 million to 21 former franchisees tied to a lawsuit filed in 2003, and the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld that ruling before the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the appeal. That history makes this return as much about franchise relations as about coffee.
Foodtastic is not walking into this blind. The company says it manages more than 1,200 restaurants and owns 23 brands, including Jimmy John’s in Canada, so it already has the franchise machinery Dunkin’ needs if it wants to grow beyond a couple of novelty openings. The test now is whether that local operating muscle can do what Dunkin’s last Canadian run could not: build trust, hold franchisees close and stay relevant in a market where Tim Hortons still sets the baseline. Tim Hortons opened its first franchise in Hamilton in May 1964 and had 3,874 Canadian stores as of September 2023.
That is the challenge in one sentence. Dunkin’ is not just coming back to Canada with donuts and iced coffee. It is trying to prove that an American chain can re-enter a market with deeply ingrained habits, a dominant homegrown rival and a lot less room for brand mistakes the second time around.
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