Hmmm, will my morning cup of Tim’s coffee still taste the same when the ink dries on the paperwork?
Say it isn’t so, Timmy!!! U.S. chain Burger King gobbling up beloved Canadian icon Tim Hortons? Is nothing sacred? Tim Hortons is as Canadian as hockey, Don Cherry and maple syrup. Stopping in for our morning cup of Tim’s is akin to waving the flag.
Unfortunately, profit trumps national pride. Tim Hortons reportedly has plans to open another 500 outlets in Canada. But as always, the huge U.S market beckons and dwarfs the dollar potential here in the great white north.
Tim’s has been expanding into the U.S. market and finding the going tough. Their enviable brand equity here has not translated well south of the border where Starbucks rules the roost. Tying their wagon to a U.S. fast food giant and leveraging its foothold is apparently too tempting to resist.
We should not be surprised. Canadian ownership of major corporations has been eroding for decades across multiple product categories – mining, oil, whisky and steel, to name just a few. We are destined, it seems, in corporate terms to being a subsidiary entity.
It is, of course, not just a geographic phenomenon. Giant multinational corporations compete with each other to see who can grow faster. They move across the world like an advancing army swallowing up smaller corporations at an alarming pace. I would wager a large sum that executive job titles with “Acquisitions” embedded in them are the fastest growing ones.
I guess we can take some solace in the fact that the dollar figure at play in the takeover of Tim’s – reportedly in the neighbourhood of $12.5 billion – is the largest ever acquisition of a restaurant chain. You can buy our icon out from under us but you have to shell out the big bucks to get it.
Lost in all of this corporate hype are the humble origins of Tim Hortons. NHL legend Tim Horton established the first outlet in Hamilton in 1964.He partnered with Ron Joyce to expand to forty Tim Hortons restaurants over a decade. Joyce bought out the Horton family’s shares when Horton died.
One has to wonder what Horton is thinking now, as he looks down from the great beyond, about what has transpired with the company he founded. It may just be the loyal Canadian in me. But I like to think he is shaking his head and saying: It just won’t be the same anymore.
An interesting sidebar to the story is the fact that the CEO of Burger King is only 34-years old while the current CEO of Tim’s is 60. Step aside Baby Boomers. Generation X is taking over and they think globally where we still think locally.
I expect that I will still stop at Tim’s for my morning coffee evening after the dust has settled. But there will be a lingering regret as I do so. Tim Hortons was a proud metaphor for all things Canadian. Now it will become just one more cog in the big U.S. corporate wheel.
Will Tim’s coffee still taste the same? Or will there be a lingering aftertaste that just seems not quite right?
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
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Tags: Burger King · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Ron Joyce · Tim HortonsNo Comments