[LINK] Three notes on the 50th anniversary of Tim Hortons

[rfmcdonald]

On the long weekend, the Canadian multinational coffee and fast food restaurant Tim Hortons celebrated its 50th anniversary. From a converted garage in Hamilton, Tim Hortons has expanded to become a major North American chain.

From CTV News, "Tim Hortons marks 50th anniversary in downtown Toronto with vintage flair":

Tim Hortons celebrated its 50th birthday yesterday by transforming downtown Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas Square into a scene from the 1960s, complete with a replica of its original Hamilton, Ont. restaurant.

Thursday’s installation included a vintage Hamilton street scene with vintage cars, staffed with servers dressed in 60s garb, handing out treats to passerby.

The coffee and donut giant opened its first store on May 17, 1964 and was named after its co-founder, Miles Gilbert “Tim” Horton, who won the Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs just weeks before launching the restaurant.

The event, which ran from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., included a performance by Montreal jazz singer Nikki Yanofsky, a Stanley Cup exhibit, and appearances by former Toronto Maple Leafs Johnny Bower and Ron Ellis.

On its actual birthday on Saturday, Tim Hortons will hand out free birthday-cake donuts at participating branches across the country.

(There are plenty of pictures.)

From the Hamilton Spectator's Jim Mahoney, "Tim Hortons celebrates Hamilton’s ‘Store No. 1’ — in Toronto".

Who ever thought when the pilot store opened here on Ottawa Street in 1964, one day Tim Hortons would be bigger than Stelco and that Stelco would get busted down to a few coke ovens and a guard dog?

Who ever thought when Ron Joyce dove into the Always Fresh in 1967, the team Tim Horton played for at the time would not win another Stanley Cup for 47 years ... and counting.

Time is an often cruel and capricious script doctor who can reduce starring characters to minor roles or write them out of the story entirely, on the slightest of pivots. And it can character-arc a guy like Ron Joyce, with inauspicious beginnings, into a billionaire with university buildings named after him.

Tim Hortons Inc. has 100,000 employees, annual revenues of more than $3 billion, 4,400 stores around the world and, now, 50 candles on its cruller.

It celebrates the milestone with a special promotion Saturday — complimentary B'day doughnuts. But it got things rolling earlier in the week, turning the "clock back on Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square today, transforming the bustling city corner into a scene from 1964, complete with a retro replica of 'Store No. 1,' Tim Hortons' very first restaurant."

[. . .]

But the thing is, if you're going to follow the ivy vine back to the rootstock, you will find yourself on Ottawa Street in Hamilton, not Dundas Square, in the city with the big pointy thing in the middle.

And, from the Canadian Press, "Tim Hortons celebrates 50 years, but faces new challenges beyond coffee":

study from marketing research firm Ipsos Reid found that Tim Hortons ranked as the sixth most influential brand in the country last year, a prominence which is supported by how instilled coffee slang like the “double-double” has become in Canadian culture.

Recently, the company launched a social media campaign where customers could pick which discontinued menu item they’d like to see back in its restaurants. The chocolate eclair won the popularity contest.

And last week Tim Hortons did what few other companies could when it opened a replica of its first restaurant for a single day of celebration. The event, held in the heart of downtown Toronto, included shelves stacked with decades of memorabilia like retro Timbits boxes and desserts that once graced the menu.

While nostalgia runs through the veins of Tim Hortons (TSX:THI), staying true to the company’s famous image won’t be enough to keep it relevant as the $4.6-billion business of Canadian coffee evolves, and competitors vie for a bigger chunk of the market.

Starbucks has spent years focused on an aggressive rollout across most of the country, chasing the high-end coffee drinker who prefers lattees and frappuccino while, more recently, McDonalds began to lure more cost-conscious customers with a cheaper brew and free giveaways.

Somewhere in the hustle, Tim Hortons lost some focus as it dabbled in alternative food and drink items to mixed success.