Dunkin’ is coming back to Canada. Inspire Brands, the multi-brand restaurant group behind Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic and Jimmy John’s, has signed a master franchising agreement with Foodtastic — one of Canada’s largest restaurant operators — to develop hundreds of Dunkin’ locations across the country. The deal returns the coffee-and-donut giant to a market it exited in 2018, and it hands a single national partner the exclusive rights to rebuild the brand from the ground up.
Under the agreement, Foodtastic takes exclusive national development rights for Dunkin’ in Canada, growing the brand through both corporate-owned and sub-franchised restaurants. The first new Dunkin’ is expected to open in late 2026, with founder and CEO Peter Mammas targeting an aggressive cadence of roughly one opening per week once the rollout matures. Foodtastic already runs Jimmy John’s in Canada under Inspire, so the two companies are extending a partnership that is already operating.
“Bringing Dunkin’ back to Canada is a significant growth opportunity for Foodtastic.”
That confidence is grounded in history. Before its 2018 retreat, Dunkin’ counted more than 200 locations in Quebec alone, giving the brand residual recognition that a master franchisee can convert into faster early traction.
Rather than selling unit-by-unit, Inspire chose the master franchise route — one well-capitalized partner controlling market development, franchisee recruitment and operations. It is the same structure that drives most cross-border restaurant growth today, and the one that lets a brand scale quickly without building a local corporate team from scratch. For readers weighing how these arrangements are built, see our explainer on how country-level master franchise rights work.
Dunkin’s Canadian re-entry is a textbook read on how global brands are approaching expansion in 2026: pick one credible operator, grant a wide territory, and let local expertise carry the brand. That playbook is exactly what is reshaping Southeast Asia and the Gulf, where category-leading franchises increasingly award country or regional rights to a single master partner. Investors tracking coffee and QSR opportunities should note the pattern — a recognizable Western brand, a proven multi-brand operator, and a development schedule measured in hundreds of units. It mirrors the structure behind recent moves such as Little Caesars’ first Malaysia restaurant and The Great Greek’s Caribbean master deal. For operators in Asia and the Middle East, the lesson is that the coffee category remains one of the most exportable franchise formats in the world — and the brands willing to re-enter a market are the ones most serious about long-term scale. More on how the format performs regionally in our look at QSR versus fast-casual in Asia.
For the brand itself, the move deepens Inspire Brands’ international footprint at a time when Dunkin’ is leaning harder on franchised growth abroad. If Foodtastic hits its weekly-opening ambition, Canada could quickly become one of Dunkin’s most important non-US markets — and a reference case the brand can point to when courting master franchisees elsewhere.
Source: Inspire Brands — Dunkin’ and Foodtastic Sign Deal to Open Hundreds of Locations in Canada
