The synergies of donuts

It’s coming closer to fruition. Last week, council approved the site plan for a wide swath of east Main Street (in the non-heritage part of Wellington, right next to non-heritage Tara Hall) to allow for the development of a gas station, convenience store and Tim Hortons outlet.

The erection of the gas station was the subject of my column a few weeks back. And I have little to say about the convenience store, to be known as the C-store (presumably because its job is to stock everything that’s bad for you beginning with the letter C, such as cigarettes, candy, chips and cans of pop. No word yet on cannabis). So let’s talk about Tim Hortons.

The first thing to remember is that this is not the Tim Hortons of yore—yore harking back to a single store in Hamilton in 1964, when it used to be known as Tim Horton’s and had not yet removed its apostrophe in order to make peace with the Quebec language police. Tims is now a part of a company called Restaurant Brands International, which also owns the Burger King chain. In turn, Restaurant Brands International is controlled by a Brazilian firm, 3G Capital Partners LP, which also controls the H.J. Heinz corporation; and has announced its intention to take over Kraft Foods Group and form the Kraft Heinz Company. One of the other significant investors with 3G is the legendary Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, through his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc.. I can just picture the scene around the boardroom table as these big hitters debate the merits of tackling the Wellington market, as opposed to opening in Barry’s Bay or Franktown; and wrestle with whether the company’s donut portfolio is overweighted in apple fritters and should be hedged in sour cream glazed futures.

The 3G company has acquired a reputation for its rigorous cost cutting, as evidenced by its decision to do away with the Tim Hortons corporate jet. Maybe 3G could offer the County some budgeting services on the side. We might end up ditching a few County trucks, which would not only cut costs, but also save councillors the job of calling out County staff whose publicly owned vehicles have been allegedly seen—shocker alert—in Tim Hortons parking lots.

Companies that merge will tell you they are seeking the synergies—efficiencies—that are supposed to come from spreading overhead over a larger base and cross-selling a product across a broader corporate spectrum. Tim Hortons already boasts about 4,500 locations (80 per cent of which are in Canada), while Burger King has some 13,000 locations worldwide (including about 300 in Canada). So the possibilities do look tempting.

But just how will it work? Will the Tims Crispy Chicken Sandwich and the Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich go back into the workshop together, have the best elements of each melded, and emerge as a superior, albeit uniform, product? Will there be an internal battle for sensory appeal between Burger King’s Smooth Roast Coffee, Tims Original Blend and the young pretender, Tims Dark Roast; with one of them to be declared the company-wide winner? More daringly, will Tims offer a ketchup and cream cheese flavoured flame-broiled donut; or Burger King roll out a burger encased in a dutchie, topped with baked beans and mayonnaise? All one can do is shudder slightly with both anticipation and relief, dreading the prospect of the finished product and thinking that, but for the grace of God, delivering on those product synergies could have been one’s job to lose. However, if Tims feels that it must try out these new products on real customers, I would suggest it do so in Picton first, rather than Wellington. They say people have much more sophisticated palates there.

The other thing that large chains strive to create is uniformity of customer expectations. So, as the Holiday Inn used to say, no surprises. You can’t really say “my compliments to the chef on a particularly excellent honey cruller.” Instead, you just have to think “um-um, that honey cruller was just as good as/about the same as/no worse than the one I had in Prescott/Brockville/Kemptville/Wherever.”

That’s the challenge for Tims in Wellington. Every business I have dealt with here, whether it be locally owned and operated or whether it flies some sort of bigger corporate flag, does such an excellent job of customer service that I think of it as uniquely Wellington. Now Tims can say, “we’re unique too: we’re the only national donut chain in Wellington.” But that isn’t what I’m getting at. I think Tims is going to have to make a concerted effort to show a local face (which I am also sure it is quite capable of doing). For example, will it offer a free Timbit to anyone sporting a Dukes cap? Will it introduce a special local donut to celebrate the opening of its Wellington location? I for one would be game to try it—if the synergies people haven’t got their hands on it first.

dsimmonds@wellingtontimes.ca