Perceptive Tim Hortons guests might soon notice a few changes at the café chain.
The company is rolling out an improved English muffin, adding fountain drink machines to some restaurants and debuting new espresso equipment, president Axel Schwan said Thursday.
While he thought Tims already had a “great” English muffin, he told The Canadian Press his company wanted to tweak the vessel for many of its breakfast sandwiches “to make it even fluffier and even more enjoyable to eat.”
By the end of this week, the new muffin will have launched in western Canada and by the end of the quarter, it will be in all restaurants across the country.
“It shows you that we are really fully, fully focused … on guest feedback and then, we keep improving the core in addition to innovating,” he said.
Past food tweaks
The changes to the English muffin come on the heels of improvements to several other Tims staples.
Last year, its chocolate chunk cookies were made bigger and pumped with more chocolate to boost its ooey gooey factor. The company has also added more fruit to its apple fritters and more filling to its Boston Cream doughnut.
These kinds of tweaks don’t just hearken to the “back to basics” strategy Schwan launched after becoming Tims Canada and U.S.’s president in 2019, but also show how the company is trying to push itself forward in an ultracompetitive market where customers are feeling squeezed.
In recent years, Tims started taking on most big fast-food players by launching wraps, rice-based bowls and flatbread pizzas to grow sales in the afternoon and evening.
It also edged into Starbucks’ territory with more inventive and trendy beverages. It now sells energy drinks and beverages boosted with protein or made with carbonated bases or cold foam.
Espresso, fountain drinks
In its latest quarter, cold beverages made up 27 per cent of the company’s total drink sales. They grew 8.6 per cent despite colder than usual temperatures in December.
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New espresso and fountain drink machines stand to fuel even more growth.
The espresso machine took years to develop but is much faster than Tims’ previous equipment, Schwan said.
“Think of it like this: better quality product, better tasting product that we can deliver faster,” he said.
So far, it’s in about 10 per cent of the company’s restaurants but as locations get remodelled and the older machines age, it will become a standard across the brand.
The fountain machines are an even newer development Tims has been working on with Coca-Cola.
They haven’t hit every store yet, but the machines are a way to drive more combo sales and they “play a key role” with many of the other cold beverages the brand has been exploring, he said.
RBI profits
Schwan’s remarks came after RBI, the company that owns Tims, Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs, revealed its fourth-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago but its revenue rose.
RBI, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, said its profit attributable to common shareholders amounted to US$113 million or 34 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Dec. 31. The result compared with a profit of US$259 million or 79 cents US per diluted share in the last three months of 2024.
On an adjusted basis, RBI says it earned 96 cents US per diluted share, up from an adjusted profit of 81 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter totalled US$2.47 billion, up from US$2.30 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024, while system-wide sales amounted to US$12.13 billion, up from US$11.28 billion.
Some segments of the company, especially Burger King, were hampered by higher beef prices that have come from depleted U.S. cattle herds.
Others grappled with higher coffee costs — the result of extreme weather events in coffee-growing countries and tariff uncertainty.
Higher coffee prices
Tims doesn’t have many beef products, so the rising meat costs “are not playing a big role” at the chain, but it raised coffee prices an average of three cents per cup last year, marking the first time in about three years that it adjusted the price of coffee.
On Thursday, Schwan said the company was starting to see relief. Coffee costs have “come down significantly” in recent months, he said.
Patrick Doyle, RBI’s executive chairman, said on a Thursday earnings call that the company has handled the headwinds well.
Its comparable sales in Canada grew 2.8 per cent in the last quarter, outperforming the broader Canadian quick-serve restaurant industry by nearly two points.
Overall, he said last year was “demanding” for restaurant operators, when you consider the rising costs and how the geopolitical uncertainty of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war weighed on the business and consumers alike.
“Taken together, it was the kind of environment that serves as a pretty good test of the fundamentals of a restaurant business,” Doyle said.
“And in that context, our performance demonstrated that the underlying fundamentals of our portfolio are not only resilient but improving.”
Start hiring Canadians again and maybe clean the place Tim Hortons are gross now never use to be like this.
When are the Tim Hortons going to start a menu for people who can’t get any food for people who cannot eat flour
Miss their chili…
Anytime a restaurant changes something it’s too make it worse and more expensive.
Soo, the muffin will be smaller and no longer made if bread. Price raised. Got it.
Yes change the English muffin. Let me guess, they’ll remove the “English” from the muffin, then have 6 inbred Indians serve it to me.
NOT Canadian!
Change is not always good. They recently removed the ham and cheese sub, which was my go to for lunch, and introduced pizza. Just what we need another place to get marginal pizza. I don’t go to Tim’s for a $7 barista café macchiato with a swirl just like I don’t go to Taco Bell and order cheesy fries. Maybe they should just eliminate the branding altogether. Take down the Firehouse Sub, Popeye’s, Burger King signs and just put up a one that says Restaurant.
Ppl still go to Singh Hortons? Gross..🤮
Tim Hortons should sell potato chips. Not everyone wants a donut. But most teenagers or adults love to order a drink and a bag of chips.
Tim Hortons has become a place for teenage plaza bums making it uncomfortable for a lot of patrons
if coffee cost have come down significantly as stated why not lower the prices now …they are very easily raised so it can’t be hard to lower
that will never happen thou
I liked their extra large hot chocolate in Minneapolis.
I went a few times when I stopped at the Mall of America and funny how they opened up different locations in Minnesota then completely pulled out.
Would much rather they start cutting menu items and get back to being coffee and donuts. If they can’t make basics right what hope does adding more help
First and formost Timmy’s are below par and have been for some time. The franchise owners always cheap out on everthing and most employess should not be working in a customer service industry because they suck at it.
Can hardly wait
Wait till they pull all pork products from its menu like kfc is doing to appease the Muslim and Islamics.
Forget the reward programe take weeks just to get a free coffee. I gave up using it. I aways got a coffee on the way to work and ended up with a free coffee at least once a week but now it may take 2 weeks to get there with points. McDonalds the points add up quickly and the coffee is good.
Stop trying to deliver faster! I’m sure most customers would prefer a little longer wait for a better quality product! I enjoy your bagels when correctly made,….. But that is rare! Far too sloppy and rushed.
why does Tim Hortons not serve gluten free foods. If they did perhaps I would go there.
What about Gluten free??
I agree with Barb. No need for Apple Fritters to be glazed. It’s like licking the sugar bowl with every bite …😜
It would be great if they had decent vegetarian options. I went there today, and the only vegetarian sandwich that was ever offered (the garden vegetable sandwich) was discontinued!! I asked what vegetarian sandwich options there were then, and they informed me that there wasn’t any.
Where are the MAPLE DONUTS ?
This is Canada !!!!!!!
It would be great if we had a choise of having glaze on or not on you Apple fritters. I love them but the glaze is to sweet and unnecessary.