SHAW'S OPENS BRANDED DOUGHNUT CHAINS

ROSEANNE HARPER

EAST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Shaw's Supermarkets is adding branded doughnut shops in selected stores in response to customers' requests, officials said.

Right on the heels of putting a Honey Dew Donuts shop into a new store in Mansfield, Mass., last month, the 191-unit chain now has contracted with Dunkin' Donut franchisees to run Dunkin' Donut sites inside seven of its stores.

"In general, we think adding Honey Dew in Mansfield and the Dunkin' Donuts in the seven northern region stores provides customers with the options they have expressed to us that they want," Terry Donilon, Shaw's spokesman, told SN.

The arrangement with a local franchisee of Honey Dew Donuts, a Braintree, Mass.-based regional chain, marks Shaw's first co-branding deal with a doughnut/coffee shop company. The in-store Dunkin' Donut shops are scheduled to open the first week in November in Shaw's units in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.

The Honey Dew shop includes nearly a full menu of Honey Dew doughnuts, muffins, pastries and brewed coffee featuring the company's own premium brand.

While designed as primarily a takeout option, the shop includes seating for eight.

One of Honey Dew's standalone sites, just a little more than a mile away from the new 65,000-square-foot Shaw's, is the production center. It supplies the in-store shop at Shaw's with fresh-baked product throughout the day, said Julie Hall, Honey Dew spokeswoman.

Shaw's most recent co-branding arrangement, with 5,500-unit Dunkin' Donuts, Randolph, Mass., is aimed at giving its customers in another area an additional reason to shop Shaw's.

The in-store Dunkin' Donut shops will sell a wide range of the doughnut chain's baked goods and beverages, as well as Dunkin' Donut's own brand coffee by the pound. Designed for takeout business, the shops provide no seating, and most will be located close to the front of the store, with no connection to Shaw's in-store bakeries, said Ted Lansdale, a Dunkin' Donut spokesman.