Marc Caira became the fourth CEO Tim Hortons has ever had less than a year ago, and he already faces a double-double challenge: grow sales in Canada while expanding into the U.S. He tells Canadian Business’s Bruce Philp just how he’s going to pull it off.
Bruce Philp: Tim Hortons has been named the Top Canadian Brand for the second year in a row in our brand survey—but what does the brand actually mean to Canadians? You used the phrase “honest dependability” in a recent memo. What do those words mean to you?
Marc Caira: Well, it’s who we are. And it’s who we were born to be. You know, Tim Hortons is an honest brand. It’s a true brand. We don’t pretend to be something we’re not. We’re predictable. And when you look at this brand, “loyalty” and “trust” are the two words that resonate the most.
What do you think has driven the success of the brand over the years?
We keep doing the same thing over and over, and we do it better than anybody else. And we demonstrate that we care every single day what our owners and franchisees do in their communities. That’s where it starts. You know, it doesn’t start here in Oakville, where the corporate head office is. It starts in each of our 3,600 stores across Canada, with what our owners and franchisees do every day within their communities. The floods in the West: we were there. The derailment in Quebec: we were there; we were supportive. That’s how you build this trust; that’s how you build this loyalty.