How a Hockey Player Started Canada’s Favorite Franchise
By: Daniel Choi
Tags: Canada, History, Tim Hortons, Marketing, Business

How a Hockey Player Started Canada’s Favorite Franchise

The story of Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons Coffee and Timbits (Photo by Conor Samuel on Unsplash)

If you’ve been to Canada, you might have seen a Tim Hortons in every street corner or every neighborhood. As of 2020, there are 3,802 Tim Hortons locations in Canada, meaning there’s a store for roughly every 9,000 Canadians. Founded in 1964, Tim Hortons has gained national popularity and it is now an essential part of many Canadian lives. As monumental and big as the franchise may seem, the beginning of this coffee business was small and humble.

It all started in 1964 when Tim Horton, a starting right-wing for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League, opened the first-ever location in Hamilton, Ontario. Horton did so after a donut store manager by the name of Jim Charade had convinced him to partner with him to open a store. Being as gullible he was, Horton invested and co-founded the brand with Charade.

The First Ever Tim Horton’s (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The two business partners often had disagreements on the menu and Charade ended up leaving in 1966. The brand expanded rapidly after Ron Joyce joined the business in 1965. By 1967, Tim Horton’s had opened multiple locations across Hamilton, and by 1968, it was a multimillion-dollar franchise.

The death of Tim Horton

Other than founding Tim Horton’s, Horton was notable for being in the Canadian National Hockey League for more than 20 years. From 1972 to 1974, Horton played for the Buffalo Sabres, being in his forties, while running one of the fastest-growing businesses in Canada. However, on February 21, 1974, Horton unfortunately died.

Tim Horton (Wikipedia)

After a game with his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, Horton insisted on driving back to Buffalo instead of joining his team’s bus. He met with his partner Ron Joyce in Oakville, where he had a few drinks. Despite Joyce’s discouragement, Horton took his car and drove to Buffalo under the influence of alcohol. He drove past the speed limit and was chased by the police, which he miraculously managed to beat. However, he soon drove his car into the curve on the highway, being found dead 40 meters from the site of the accident with a bottle of vodka. The details of his death were not revealed to the public until 2005 when it was disclosed to the public that he was under the influence of alcohol and a stimulant called Dexedrine.

Tim Horton’s after Tim Horton

After Horton’s death, Ron Joyce fully took over the business from his family, when he bought their shares for one million dollars. Joyce was very close to his deceased business partner’s family, which made the settlement very easy for him. He took control of the company’s operation, and with it, 40 stores under the brand. Since then, the company had grown exponentially, establishing itself as one of the most prominent Canadian businesses.

Tim Horton’s appealed to Canadians with their cheap prices for coffee and donuts and their identity as a “true Canadian business”. Their coffee became associated with hockey, as many advertisements focus on Canada’s love for hockey. In 1984, Tim Hortons opened their first store in America, and in 1991, opened their 500th store. As of 2019, Tim Hortons operates 4900 stores worldwide. In 1993, the business changed its name from Tim Horton’s to Tim Hortons, as Quebec’s new law on English business names prohibited the use of the apostrophe, which does not exist in the French language.

Tim Hortons Timbits (Daily Hive)

A coffee and donut shop started by a famous hockey player became the most popular franchise in Canada in just six decades. It introduced Canadian favorites like the double-double (two creams and two sugars in coffee), Timbits (small bite-sized donuts), and iced cap (iced cappuccino). Since its founding, it overcame struggles like the death of its founder and grew to represent Canada with its brand. Today, Canadians will still pick Tim Hortons as their go-to store for a cup of double-double and donuts.