TORONTO — Tim Hortons’ latest quarter lacked some of the brand’s usual pep. The café chain’s owner Restaurants Brands International Inc. revealed Thursday that Tim Hortons’ sales remained flat in its second quarter, when its marketing failed to land how executives hoped. “Our calendar didn’t drive the growth we’ve come to expect from Tims and was unable to lap last year’s major platform launches,” RBI chief executive Josh Kobza said on a call with analysts. Tims spent much of the quarter pushing sandwiches akin to grilled cheeses that the company recently brought back in response to consumer demand. Its other big launches included new flavours of quenchers — its cold beverages that come in fruity flavours and sometimes with added protein — and a line of four new Timbit flavours advertised with soccer theming. Axel Schwan, the president of Tims’ Canadian and U.S. operations, named the Timbits as the laggard in an interview. “We had higher hopes,” he said of the promotion timed to the FIFA World Cup but lacking the tournament’s official branding. “When we realized that it was not delivering the results we were planning for, we quickly adjusted and changed our priorities.” The chain relied on melts and cold beverages, which wound up delivering enough sales to convince Kobza that Tims isn’t on the verge of a slump. “We were encouraged by stronger business performance as the quarter progressed and are excited about the backhalf calendar,” he said. In the coming months, Tims will launch a Harry Potter partnership with doughnuts for each Hogwarts house and a quencher inspired by the franchise’s Forbidden Forest and served in a temperature-activated, colour-changing cup that reveals a Patronus. New flavours of its core breakfast offerings and a holiday partnership are also on the way, though the company offered no specifics around what either could entail. Kobza and Schwan are hoping the launches fuel the kind of growth Tims is used to. The brand makes up roughly 41 per cent of the operating profit recorded by RBI, which also owns Burger King, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Firehouse Subs. But in the second quarter, Tims notched US$2 billion in system-wide sales, about the same as a year earlier. Comparable sales grew 0.1 per cent, down from 3.4 per cent a year prior and paling in comparison to the 8.6 per cent leap Burger King experienced over the same period. System-wide sales capture the revenue companies make across all of a brand’s restaurants. Part of the reason why growth was muted was because a year ago, the company was seeing strong sales from scrambled egg-based boxes it launched in partnership with actor Ryan Reynolds and a round of new filled Timbits, Schwan said. His comments came after RBI announced its profit attributable to common shareholders reached US$507 million in its second quarter, compared with US$189 million during the same quarter a year ago. The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, said the profit amounted to US$1.45 per diluted share, up from 57 cents US per diluted share a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter ended June 30 totalled US$2.5 billion, up from US$2.4 billion. On an adjusted basis, Restaurant Brands earned US$1.07 per diluted share in the quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 94 cents US per diluted share in the second quarter of 2025. Much of the growth was driven by RBI’s international business and Burger King. RBI has been working over several quarters to reinvigorate the Burger King brand by improving its Whopper burger and boosting franchisee profitability. “Popeyes was the disappointment, coming in worse than an already-cautious Street was braced for, while Tim Hortons continued to lag as expected, but at least had slightly positive comp – which is optically better than having negative comp,” Bernstein analyst Danilo Gargiulo said in a note to investors. Moving forward, Schwan said Tims is focusing on its upcoming partnerships as well as a new line of matcha-based drinks and the roll out of fountain soda machines. The chain has 1,300 restaurants with the machines and is adding a couple hundred every month, Schwan said. He hopes to have one installed at every location by early next year. The machines don’t just reduce Tims’ reliance on bottled pop. It has also helped the company introduce soda swirls, a play on dirty sodas which mix pop, cream and other flavours. --- Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2026.
