NEW YORK -- The coffee wars have not impacted the financial picture at Dunkin?? Donuts, said one owner earlier this week, Reuters reports. Even with the debut of McDonald??s McCafe last year, the doughnut chain??s coffee market share has continued to grow at a steady clip, said Mark Nunnelly, managing director at Bain Capital, which is one of the chain??s three private equity owners.

"The big hurt has not been Dunkin?? to McDonald??s or McDonald??s to Dunkin??," he said. "It??s been Dunkin?? and McDonald??s to your local fill-in-the-blank convenience store."

Nunnelly points to Starbucks as the company that has suffered the most by the coffee price wars and the slow economy. "The higher-priced players at $4 or $5 for a latte have obviously had the toughest year through the crisis," he said. "The more accessible price point players like Dunkin?? and McDonald??s have fared better through that period."

Most consumers trade down from higher-priced beverages to plain coffee instead of buying java at a different outlet. "If you look at Dunkin??s comps in coffee and McDonald??s comps in coffee, I think you would say you??ve got a pretty loyal set of customers both places, that the price points aren??t different enough," said Nunnelly.

McDonald??s attributed higher sales of McCafe beverages as part of the reason behind an unexpected 1 percent jump in same-store sales in December. For January, however, U.S. same-store sales for McDonald??s fell 0.7 percent.