Baskin-Robbins, Inc. is an American multinational chain of

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

and

cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...

specialty shops owned by

Inspire Brands Inspire Brands LLC is an American fast-food restaurant franchise company. Backed by Roark Capital Group, it owns the Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic Drive-In, Jimmy John's, Dunkin' Donuts, and Baskin-Robbins chains, which have a combined ...

. Baskin-Robbins was formed in 1945 by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city located primarily in the Verdugo Mountains region, with a small portion in the San Fernando Valley, of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is located about north of downtown Los Angeles. As of 2024, Glendale ha ...

.Our History
". Baskin-Robbins' web site. Accessed 25 Feb. 2013. Its headquarters are in

Canton, Massachusetts Canton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,370 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Canton is part of Greater Boston, about southwest of Downtown Boston. History The area that is present ...

, and shared with sibling brand

Dunkin' Donuts DD IP Holder LLC, doing business as Dunkin', and originally Dunkin' Donuts, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by Bill Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 19 ...

. It is the world's largest chain of ice cream specialty stores, with more than 7,800 locations. The company is known for its "31 flavors" slogan, with the idea that a customer could have a different flavor every day of any month. The logo includes a stylized "31" formed from the letters "B" and "R". The slogan came from the Carson-Roberts advertising agency (which later merged into

Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City a ...

) in 1953. The company has introduced more than 1,400 flavors since 1945, including the addition of

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

and non-

dairy A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

flavors in 2019.

History

During the 1940s in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

, American brothers-in-law Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins each opened a series of

shops. The pair previously had experience working with ice cream: Robbins's father owned an ice cream shop which Robbins worked in as a teenager, and Baskin had produced ice cream for fellow troops while in the Navy during World War II. American consumers at the time were very attached to the three basic ice-cream flavors of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. This remained the case, despite the efforts of ice cream seller Howard Johnson. Robbins opened his first store, Snowbird Ice Cream, in 1945 in Glendale, selling 21 flavors, a novel amount. The following year, Baskin opened his first store in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

, Burton's Ice Cream Shop. The pair quickly opened new stores and as of 1948 they collectively had 6 stores. By 1949, this had increased to over 40. That year, they purchased a dairy in Burbank to attain greater control over production. In 1953, the approach of separate brand identities was dropped, and the entity "Baskin-Robbins 31 Ice Cream" was created under the advice of the advertising firm Carson/Roberts. The "31" referred to the amount of flavors, an amount chosen to signify the customer could have a new flavor every day of the month. Some of these original flavors included Chocolate Mint, Black Walnut and Coffee Candy. During expansion, the pair began franchised their stores. Beyond the large amount of flavors, Baskin-Robbins was unusual for a décor intended to reflect a value of fun, containing pink and brown polka dots and clowns, and small sampling spoons they introduced which has been replicated by many ice cream stores since. Old Baskin-Robbins Logo

Between 1949 and 1962, the corporate firm was known as Huntington Ice Cream Company. The name succeeded ''The Baskin-Robbins Partnership'' and was eventually changed back to Baskin-Robbins, Inc. on November 26, 1962. Baskin-Robbins was owned by its founders until it was acquired in 1967 (just before Burt Baskin's death) by the United Fruit Company, for what was estimated to be $12 million. In the 1970s, the chain expanded internationally, opening stores in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. In 1972, the company went public when United Brands sold 17% in an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. A year later, the British food company

J. Lyons and Co. J, or j, is the tenth letter of the English alphabet. J may also refer to: * Palatal approximant in the International Phonetic Alphabet * J, Cyrillic letter Je Astronomy * J, a provisional designation prefix for some objects discovered be ...

purchased Baskin-Robbins from United Brands and all public stock. J. Lyons then merged with

Allied Breweries Allied Breweries was the result of a 1961 merger between Ind Coope (of Burton), Ansells (of Birmingham), and Tetley Walker (of Leeds). In 1978, Allied Breweries merged with the food and catering group J. Lyons and Co to form Allied Lyons. The b ...

, becoming Allied-Lyons in 1978. Allied-Lyons then merged with Pedro Domecq S.A. in 1994, becoming

Allied Domecq Allied Domecq PLC was a multinational company, headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom, that operated spirits, wine, and quick service restaurant businesses. It was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent and the world's second-largest spirits gro ...

. Baskin-Robbins and

comprise Dunkin' Brands, Inc. Dunkin' Brands was part of Allied Domecq until its purchase in 2006 by a group of private equity firms

Bain Capital Bain Capital, LP is an American Investment company, private investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, with around $185 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, p ...

Thomas H. Lee Partners Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. is an American private equity firm headquartered in Boston. The firm focuses on investing in middle market growth companies across various sectors, including financial technology, services, healthcare, technology, ...

, and

The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

In 2006, the company's "BR" logo was updated such that it doubles as the number "31" to represent the 31 flavors, with the "31" formed by the parts of the letters "BR" which are rendered in pink, in contrast to the rest of the logo which is rendered in blue. In August 2012, Dunkin' Brands became completely independent of the private equity firms. Baskin-Robbins struggled in the early years of the 2000s to retain business, but opened 36 new shops between 2013 and 2015. Many new Baskin-Robbins shops are co-branded with Dunkin' Donuts, including California's first co-branded location of the two in San Diego, which opened in March 2014. In 2014, Baskin-Robbins also began selling its ice cream for the first time in supermarkets across the U.S. In July 2017, Baskin-Robbins started adding their locations to delivery service platform

DoorDash DoorDash, Inc. is an American company operating online food ordering and food delivery. It trades under the symbol DASH. With a 56% market share, DoorDash is the largest food delivery platform in the United States. It also has a 60% market sha ...

to deliver ice cream in 22 cities across the United States. In December 2020, Dunkin' Brands was purchased by

. Baskin-Robbins debuted an updated logo, alongside the new tagline "Seize the Yay", on April 11, 2022.

Chris Buck Christopher James Buck (born February 24, 1958) is an American film director, animator, and screenwriter known for co-directing '' Tarzan'' (1999), '' Surf's Up'' (2007) (which was nominated for the 2007 Oscar for Best Animated Feature), '' F ...

and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

are two notable former employees.

International presence

As of 2017, Baskin-Robbins had more than 8,000 shop locations in Aruba, Australia, Bahrain, Bhutan, Canada, China, Colombia, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Egypt, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen. International locations feature flavors of ice cream popular in each country, such as Red Bean, Litchi Gold, Blackcurrant and Cantaloupe. The most popular flavors of Baskin-Robbins in Asia are Mint Chocolate Chip and Cookies & Cream. Baskin-Robbins has previously been present in other countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Malta, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, and St. Maarten. Cambodia does not have any locations of Baskin-Robbins but their products are officially available at an Au Bon Pain bakery franchise. The standalone stores in Bangladesh were closed down, but their products are available at multiple local stores. In Japan, Taiwan, China, and the Philippines, Baskin-Robbins is known popularly as "31" or "31 ice cream".

Australia

Baskin-Robbins Australia is a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of Inspire Brands, the parent company of Baskin-Robbins and

Dunkin' DD IP Holder LLC, doing business as Dunkin', and originally Dunkin' Donuts, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by Bill Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1950. T ...

. In October 2010, Dunkin' Brands terminated its license agreement with the collapsed Allied Brands Group for Baskin-Robbins in Australia, and now supports its Australian franchisees directly. The Baskin-Robbins Australia Franchise Support & Training Centre is based in Brisbane.

Ireland

Baskin Robbins opened in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

in 2015 with a total of 8 shops.

References

External links