Tim Hortons is attracting younger Canadians to its restaurants with matcha and other cold drinks, helping grow sales at the coffee-and-doughnut chain despite a tough consumer environment.
The café chain’s owner, Restaurant Brands International Inc., said Thursday that same-store sales at Tim Hortons in Canada rose 1.8 per cent in the third quarter, improving from the previous quarter but slowing from 4.2 per cent growth a year earlier.
Josh Kobza, chief executive of Restaurant Brands, said Tim Hortons is finding new demand beyond its traditional morning coffee business.
“We’re bringing in new guests that generally are younger, they skew more female, they come in the afternoon more often, and it’s a little bit (of a) higher cheque,” he said during an earnings call.
Kobza also said there was an unexpected pattern with sales of matcha drinks, which were introduced in July.
“Interesting thing we’ve realized with matcha, it peaks on the weekends, so it’s a pretty different behavioural profile from our traditional hot-brewed coffee in the morning.”
Cold beverage sales at Tim Hortons in Canada climbed nearly five per cent in the quarter, Restaurant Brands said.
However, the coffee chain also faced pressure from cost-of-living concerns, with higher gasoline prices affecting some customer behaviour.
“We see a little bit of an impact from that … in some of our drive-through and especially more rural markets,” Kobza said. “If you think of the places where people have longer drive times, they’re being mindful about the kilometres they’re driving.”
After years of introducing new products, Tim Hortons is increasingly turning to discontinued menu items to attract customers.
Axel Schwan, president of Tim Hortons in Canada and the United States, confirmed the chain is preparing to bring back more old favourites in the first quarter of 2027.
He declined to identify the products but said their return comes in response to customer requests.
The plan follows the successful return of grilled cheese melts and the turkey bacon club with honey mustard earlier this year, Schwan said.
Meanwhile, he said Tim Hortons will launch a holiday collaboration tied to the 2003 Christmas movie Elf.
The promotion will launch in November and include a holiday menu, although Schwan did not disclose specific products.
He said Tim Hortons is on track to open 80 new restaurants and renovate 400 locations in Canada as part of a $400-million investment this year, with plans for hundreds more renovations and additional restaurant openings in 2027.
He added that keeping the coffee chain affordable remains a key priority.
“Tims was always well known for a very nice value-for-money equation,” Schwan said. “The everyday low price is the key formula for us.”
Restaurant Brands reported its third-quarter profit rose compared with a year ago, helped by strength at Burger King and Tim Hortons.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, said it earned US$542 million in net income attributable to common shareholders for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from US$315 million in the same quarter last year.
The profit amounted to US$1.54 per diluted share for the quarter, up from 96 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Restaurant Brands said it earned US$1.10 per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of US$1.03 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the company totalled US$2.53 billion, up from $2.45 billion a year ago, while system-wide sales totalled US$12.97 billion, up from US$12.28 billion a year earlier.
Comparable sales for the quarter were up 3.8 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX:QSR)
Note to readers:This is a corrected story. An earlier version incorrectly stated the company’s revenue in millions, not billions.
