U.S.-based ice-cream and doughnut franchisor Dunkin Brands plans to open up to 100 Baskin-Robbins franchises in South Africa and also launch a Dunkin’ Donuts chain, according to a report in BusinessDayLive.

South Africa’s growing market and population profile represent an untapped opportunity since there is not much competition in the hard-scoop ice cream and ice cream cake markets, said Jeremy Vitaro, Dunkin’ Brands vice-president of international development.

“In South Africa, ice cream is primarily known within the confines of supermarkets,” Vitaro said. “This is a big…opportunity designed to suit regional and master franchising.”

Seeking growth in emerging markets and their burgeoning middle class, Baskin-Robbins has a presence in more than 50 countries outside the U.S. including India, China and Russia.

The South African ice-cream market will be worth about $339 million this year, according to research company Datamonitor, the report said.

Ola South Africa, a division of Unilever, and Dairymaid-Nestlé have the biggest market share in South African ice-cream. Häagen-Dazs has five stores in South Africa and its ice creams are sold at retailers.

Nasdaq-listed Dunkin’ Brands is in the process of recruiting franchisee partners to develop the Baskin-Robbins brand in South Africa. “We will be very involved from an operations, training, supply chain and field perspective,” Vitaro said.

Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Bloemfontein are being targeted for the first openings with the first store opening in 2014. Eighteen months after the roll-out of Baskin-Robbins, the plan is to launch Dunkin’ Donuts.

Dunkin’ Brands has about 473 Baskin-Robbins ice-cream parlors in India through a franchise agreement with Graviss Group. It also has three Dunkin’ Donuts stores in India, and hopes to open up to 100 over the next five years.

Kahala Corp., one of the U.S.’s largest franchising companies, is also eyeing Africa through its Cold Stone Creamery ice-cream brand, the report said. It opened a store in Nigeria in September after signing a master franchise agreement with Ivybridge Trading and hopes to open nine more in the next five years.

Baskin Robbins has introduced more than 1,000 flavors since it was founded in 1945 including Strawberry Millefeuille, Wild ’n Reckless Sherbert and Peppermint Fudge Ribbon.