New boss takes over at Dunkin’ as Canton company changes hands

Scott Murphy will lead the coffee shop and ice cream chains, now part of Inspire Brands

Dave Hoffmann (right), is the former chief executive of Dunkin' Brands.Alex Brandon/Associated Press

There’s a new boss in charge at Dunkin’ and Baskin-Robbins, now that the Canton-based chains have been acquired by a privately owned restaurant group based in Atlanta.

Inspire Brands, the Roark Capital-backed restaurant conglomerate, said Tuesday that it had completed the $11.3 billion acquisition of Dunkin’ Brands. That price tag, announced on Oct. 30, includes the equity Inspire has acquired, as well as the Dunkin’ debt. The deal ended a nine-year run for Dunkin’ Brands as an independent, publicly traded company.

As part of the Tuesday announcement, Inspire noted that former Dunkin’ Brands chief executive Dave Hoffmann is shifting to an advisory role to help Inspire cofounder and chief executive Paul Brown integrate the Dunkin’ group into Inspire. Hoffmann had arrived at Dunkin’ in 2016 as the heir apparent; the McDonald’s veteran was tapped at the time to oversee Dunkin’ stores in the United States and Canada. Two years later, he took over for Nigel Travis as chief executive for the corporate parent of the Dunkin’ and Baskin-Robbins chains in the United States and overseas.

Dunkin’ executive Scott Murphy will now become the closest thing to a Dunkin’ Brands chief executive: head of the beverage-snack category at Inspire. Murphy will also be president of Dunkin’ going forward, and will report directly to Brown. Murphy had joined the company in 2004 and most recently served as president of Dunkin’ Americas, essentially Hoffmann’s old job. Jason Maceda, who had been a senior vice president with Dunkin’ Brands, will become president of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop chain, reporting to Murphy. Both will remain based in Canton.

Dunkin’ employs about 1,100 corporate workers worldwide, including roughly 670 in Massachusetts.

Inspire now bills itself as the second largest restaurant company in the United States, based on system sales (nearly $26 billion a year) and locations (nearly 32,000).

The Dunkin’ group makes up a significant portion of those sales and location numbers: At the time of the Dunkin’ deal’s announcement in October, there were more than 12,500 Dunkin’ shops and nearly 800 Baskin-Robbins shops, all owned by franchisees, that collectively totaled about $12 billion in system sales in 2019. Other chains owned by Inspire include Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s, Rusty Taco, and Sonic.