EX-DOLPHIN KEITH SIMS SCORES BIG WITH FRANCHISE

by sean on June 10th, 2007

(FranchisePick.Com) June 8, 2007

Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Read the full story here.

“Ex-Dolphin Keith Sims now running chain of Dunkin’ Donuts franchises”

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Dolphin’s Pro-Bowler Keith Sims retired from the National Football League in 2000, and opened his first Dunkin’ Donuts franchise in Broward County the same year.

This week Sims and his business partners, brothers Ken and Clint Privett, completed the purchase of two existing Plantation stores, bringing their roster to 17 and making them among the largest Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees in Florida. (At 340 pounds, about 25 pounds heavier than he was as a three-time Pro Bowl player, we’d bet Sims IS the largest DD franchisee in Florida).

Sims, who turns 40 this month, brings to his business the same outgoing personality that made him popular as a player. He decorates his stores with Dolphins and Redskins jerseys and helmets. Dolphins cheerleaders and former players helped celebrate the grand opening of his newest location on Pine Island Road in Plantation last month.

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They plan to have 21 stores in Broward and Miami-Dade counties by year’s end and to expand to 26 by the end of 2008. He and his partners say they want to keep growing the business to 30, 40, even 50 stores and perhaps expand outside the region. They are also considering other franchise opportunities.

Talalay Explains how Sims Started his Donut Empire:

He got a list of the top 500 franchises and began cold-calling: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. Sims said around 1995 Burger King called him and Dolphins teammate Richmond Webb about buying franchises. They weren’t ready, but when Sims was he said Burger King didn’t have any available.

He signed on with Dunkin’ Donuts in 1999 and started developing three stores. Then he bought a fourth existing store on Miramar Parkway, but the road was soon under construction, making getting into the shopping center difficult. Sims almost bailed.

“I lost a lot of money my first year,” Sims said, adding he wrote checks to cover losses that amounted to $100,000 on his $1 million investment.

Sims, who lives in Davie, stuck it out. In 2000, he met the Privetts, who owned two Dunkin’ Donuts stores, when they were all looking for a kitchen to make doughnuts. The sugary confections are made off-site and trucked to stores each morning. Together, they created Dania Donuts, of which Sims owns half and the Privetts own the other half.

“He acts more normal than most normal people do,” Ken Privett said of Sims. “Keith had been at the top, he had been a star. He’s very humble, that’s what was really attractive to me.”

The Dunkin’ Donuts chain, based in Massachusetts-based, has 5,400 stores in the eastern United States — and has plans to expand west. Dunkin Donuts franchises another 1,900 stores internationally.