From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Baskin-Robbins Inc. | | Type | Subsidiary of Dunkin' Brands | Founded | 1945 | Headquarters | Canton, Massachussetts, United States | Parent | Dunkin' Brands | Website | www.baskin-robbins.com |
Baskin-Robbins is a global chain of ice cream parlors founded by Burt Baskin and Irvine Robbins in 1953, from the merging of their respective ice cream parlors, in Glendale, California. It claims to be the world's largest ice cream franchise,[1] with more than 5,800 locations, 2,800 of which are located in the United States. Baskin-Robbins sells ice cream in over 30 countries. The company is headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts.[2]
The Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlors started as separate ventures from Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins, owning Burt's Ice Cream Shop andSnowbird Ice Cream respectively. Snowbird Ice Cream featured 21 flavors, a novel concept for the time. When the separate companies merged in 1953, this concept grew to 31 flavors.[3]
Baskin-Robbins is known for its "31 flavors" slogan (which is featured in logo, in pink). The idea for having so many came from the Carson-Roberts advertising agency (which later became Ogilvy & Mather) in 1953, along with the slogan "Count the Flavors. Where flavor counts." It also was more than the 28 flavors then famously offered at Howard Johnson's restaurants. In addition, the number 31 was chosen so a customer could have a different flavor every day of any month. Burt and Irv also believed that people should be able to sample flavors until they found one they wanted to buy ― hence the iconic small pink spoon. * |
[edit]Corporate history
Baskin-Robbins restaurant on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, California
By 1948, Burt and Irv opened six stores, the first franchise covering the sale of ice cream was executed May 20, 1948, for the store at 1130 South Adams in Glendale (Store #1). Burt and Irv were brothers-in-law. In 1949, the company’s