Dunkin’ is going public again — this time with an entire restaurant empire in tow

America’s biggest coffee-and-donut chain may be heading back to Wall Street after nearly six years, but this time, it does so as a crown jewel within a burgeoning fast-food empire.

Last Friday, Inspire Brands, the private equity-backed restaurant conglomerate behind Dunkin’, Arby’s, Sonic, and more, announced that it has confidentially filed for an IPO.

Formed in 2018 after Arby’s acquired Buffalo Wild Wings, Inspire added Sonic later that year, Jimmy John’s in 2019, and Dunkin’ Brands — including Baskin-Robbins — in an $11.3 billion deal in 2020, taking the coffee chain private. Across its six chains, the company says it now has more than 33,300 restaurants around the world and generated about $33.4 billion in annual systemwide sales in 2025.

Mmm... donuts

While the IPO may seem like a chance to bet on a sprawling restaurant portfolio, Dunkin’ really is doing most of the heavy lifting, accounting for nearly half of Inspire’s global system sales and stores last year, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

Indeed, the coffee-and-donut giant has pulled far ahead of its parent co’s other major brands in the US. Per data from QSR, Dunkin’s US systemwide sales climbed to about $12.5 billion in 2024, more than double Sonic’s and nearly triple Arby’s — both of which saw sales fall from the previous year, while the rest of Inspire’s brands also saw sales slip or growth slow.

Dunkin’s rise has been especially pronounced since 2021, helped by a store-refresh push that added more mobile-order pickup, drive-thru, and digital-order features, scaling from 1,000 updated locations in early 2021 to 4,000 by the middle of 2024.

With Inspire’s backer Roark Capital reportedly seeking a $20 billion valuation, the filing comes as another PE-backed chain readies itself to test the public waters: last month, Blackstone-backed Jersey Mike’s also quietly filed, looking at a valuation of at least $12 billion.