Pladis-owned Flipz and Dunkin', the country's largest coffee-and-donut chain with more than 14,200 restaurants across nearly 40 global markets, have co-developed a limited-time retail product: Flipz Pumpkin Spice Donut-Flavored Covered Pretzels. The snack, hitting store shelves nationwide through October, mirrors the flavor profile of Dunkin's Pumpkin Cake Donut and marks the latest move by a major QSR brand to extend its seasonal daypart equity beyond the restaurant footprint.
The Product Play
The LTO stacks pumpkin and warm-spice notes onto Flipz's signature sweet-and-salty chocolate-covered pretzel format. Distribution spans a broad retail footprint — Kroger, Albertsons, CVS, Stop & Shop, Wakefern, Dollar General, and Five Below — giving the collaboration exposure across grocery, drug, and value channels simultaneously. For Inspire Brands, Dunkin's parent company, the retail licensing arrangement keeps the Pumpkin Cake Donut name in front of consumers during the high-demand fall window even outside the drive-thru.
Licensing as a Growth Channel
Brian Gilbert, Vice President of Retail Business Development at Inspire Brands, framed the deal as an extension of existing fan behavior. "Dunkin' fans look forward to pumpkin season every year," Gilbert said, noting that the Flipz collaboration offers "another delicious way to enjoy one of fall's most iconic flavors" beyond the restaurant occasion. For pladis Americas, parent of Flipz, the partnership follows a brand-extension playbook the snack company has been executing in recent years — the Blueberry Donut SKU already demonstrates comfort with donut-flavor crossover — and ties the number-one chocolate-covered pretzel brand to one of foodservice's most recognizable seasonal LTOs.
Shivani Arora, Marketing Director at pladis Americas, called pumpkin spice "a cultural phenomenon" that has moved well past trend status, making it a low-risk flavor anchor for a limited-run SKU. The fall window remains one of the most competitive periods in both the QSR calendar and the packaged-snack aisle, with brands across the segment racing to capture the seasonal urgency that drives trial and basket addition.
Retail-Foodservice Crossover
The collaboration reflects a broader channel-blurring dynamic in the foodservice industry, where QSR brands increasingly monetize their menu IP through licensed retail products, supplementing royalty revenue with off-premise consumer touchpoints. For chain operators managing seasonal traffic spikes, retail licensing can sustain brand relevance between restaurant visits at minimal incremental cost. Dunkin's pumpkin platform — which also drives significant fall beverage comp-sales momentum across its domestic units — gains an additional impressions vehicle without adding operational complexity at the store level.
For snack-aisle buyers and foodservice distributors tracking branded LTO activity, the Flipz-Dunkin' deal signals continued appetite for QSR-to-retail flavor translation, particularly around high-velocity seasonal windows. With distribution already confirmed at major national grocers and value retailers, sell-through velocity during the September–October peak will be the metric that determines whether pladis extends the Dunkin' partnership into additional SKUs or seasons.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
