Dunkin CEO Eats Doughnuts for Breakfast

Dunkin' Brands CEO Nigel Travis runs one of the best-known companies out there.
But if he wasn't doing that, he says he'd be running or swimming or boating. Just about anything sports-related, he said in an appearance on "Off The Cuff", a new series that features top leaders in candid interviews about life beyond the corner office.

Dunkin' Brands, the Massachusetts-based restaurant franchisor, is best known for its coffee shops and the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlors. Located in more than 60 countries, Dunkin' Brands rang up $8.3 billion dollars in sales last year, selling scoops of ice cream, cups of coffee, and breakfast food on-the-go.

Travis, who became the CEO of the company in 2009, has focused on expanding the Dunkin' Brands trademark to the global market, opening new stores in Japan, China, India, and Latin America. "Our guidance this year is that we'll open over 600 new stores globally, so growth is very important to us," said Travis in an interview on CNBC earlier this year.

The company beat analysts' expectations on third-quarter earnings, reporting a five percent revenue increase. Dunkin' tied these positive results to their unveiling of new international restaurants, and the remodeling of 144 locations.

"The thing that really pleased me in the quarter is the fact that we really started to move. We put the foot down on the accelerator on development," the Dunkin' Brands executive said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

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"The more stores we get open, the more profits we're going to have in the future," he added.

While Travis continues to focus on extending global investments and pushing out the Dunkin' brand to new mobile audiences, he said, one of his simple joys is getting out of work early, to spend time with his family. "I might come home early and spend time with the kids. If I'm in the Boston area, I'm home by 6 o'clock at night," he says.

Living in New England, Travis admits his biggest extravagance is taking his boat for a spin with his wife. Travis says being out on the water "…gets you away from work."

And when it comes to breakfast, we had to ask: Does Travis "run on Dunkin'"? His answer: Yup. Carbs are Travis's energy booster, "I often have a doughnut or a bagel, or sometimes on the way to work if I'm especially hungry, I get a Wake-Up Wrap."

Besides having breakfast, Travis's best advice: "Listen to people, look at the different angles. It gives you a rounded approach to every problem."