Tim Hortons, We Barely Recognize You

Tim Hortons is a Canadian coffee chain, as iconic as Canadian Tire, Hudson’s Bay, Canada Goose, and Roots. Many Canadians affectionally refer to the chain as Timmies or Tims.

It was founded in 1964 hockey legend Tim Horton and his partner Jim Charade in Hamilton, Ontario. It has expanded to 6,000 locations in 14 countries with about two-thirds in Canada. Although it’s still an iconic Canadian brand, it is no longer owned by Canadians.

First Tim Hortons location in Hamilton, Ontario

I remember in the early years, each location baked donuts onsite. They were fresh and delicious and the coffee was very good. Today, the products are shipped to each location and the coffee is horrible. They menu has expanded considerably and is equally mediocre.

My favourite donut used to be the apple fritters. They were a bear-claw, knotted piece of soft, golden-fried dough laced with cinnamon. The apple fritters contained actual apple pieces, sealed with a shiny, sweet glaze. Today, the same item is virtually unrecognizable. They are less that half the original size with some awful goop inside. And they no longer contain apples.

Each product sold at Tim Hortons has gone through the same destructive evolution. But they make lots of money for the owners and Canadians still lineup for the next fix like the zombies in Night of the Living Dead.

So, what happened?

Tim Horton shortly before his death

Tim Horton was an all-star NHL defenseman who played the majority of his career for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Horton is considered one of the great players in league history by the NHL. But beyond his skill on the ice, Tim Horton was a successful businessman.

In 1974, the year he passed away in a car crash, the chain had 40 locations. A short time later, Ron Joyce who has Horton’s partner at the time, talked Horton’s grieving widow into selling him her inherited shares of the brand, making Joyce the sole owner. Ron Joyce began a campaign of rapid expansion that would see the end of many of Canada’s small donut and coffee chains. In the 1990s, Canada became the country with the highest per-capita ratio of donut shops in the world. It remains so to this day.

In 1995, Wendy’s parent company purchased the Tim Hortons franchise. This is a marriage that would last about a decade and a half, but would forever alter the chain. During the organization’s time as a subsidiary of Wendy’s, the brand underwent some unfortunate changes that set a poor tone for the company’s future.

2003 was one such turning point for the franchise. It was this dark time in which Tim Hortons stopped baking their donuts fresh in store. They instead began to “par bake” the donuts. Which is to say partially baking them in a singular Ontario factory and then flash freezing them for shipment to their tens of thousands of locations. I had become just another fast-food chain.

Today, Tim Hortons is owned by Restaurant Brands International Inc., a multinational fast-food holding company. Restaurant Brands International was formed in 2014 when Tim Hortons merged with Burger King. Since being acquired by Restaurant Brands International, the focus shifted toward maximizing profit margins. Customers frequently note that food items have shrunk in size, dropped in ingredient quality, and become more expensive.

Franchise owners now struggle with increased supply chain and coffee bean tariffs, putting upward pressure on their prices. There has also been a backlash regarding its workforce demographic and accusations of over-relying on temporary foreign workers.

Long-time customers feel the brand has strayed too far from its original coffee and donut identity by aggressively expanding into unrelated lunch and dinner menus. Online communities are vocal about declining hygiene and service standards. Customers regularly share grievances about bare-handed food handling and staff training.

Time Hortons used to be a place where I would share coffee and donuts with friends but not anymore. The nostalgia for the "old" Tim Hortons has been replaced with today's profit-driven, mass-market business model. It’s quite sad.