Grand Parade Investments (GPI) has announced that it has closed down Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins in South Africa due to poor performance.<\/p>\n
In a shareholder statement on Friday (15 February), GPI said it has filed an application for the voluntary liquidation of these businesses.<\/p>\n
“The decision to exit Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins was made following sustained losses in these businesses and an unsuccessful process to dispose of these businesses,” it said.<\/p>\n
“The decision is in line with the company\u2019s value-based strategy, which aims at improving the groups capital allocation by channelling capital to high-value potential assets, such as Burger King.”<\/p>\n
The brands have been in South Africa for little over two years, after GPI launched them in country at the end of 2016.<\/p>\n
In January 2016 Grand Foods acquired the South African master franchise licences for Dunkin\u2019 Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, from the Dunkin\u2019 Brands group.<\/p>\n
According to the Dunkin\u2019 Brands group, under the agreement, Grand Parade would develop more than 250 Dunkin\u2019 Donuts restaurants and more than 70 Baskin-Robbins shops in South Africa time, with an initial focus on Cape Town and Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
However, the brands never exited the Mother City, and rollouts slumped in 2018.<\/p>\n
As of February 2019, there are only 11 Dunkin Donuts stores in the country – all in Cape Town and surrounds – while only 5 Basking Robbins outlets opened, all in the same city.<\/p>\n