Canadians' favourite spot for a double-double and an old fashioned glazed doughnut is trying its hand at a new endeavour: pizza.
What happened: Today, a line of flatbread pizzas — including cheese, pepperoni, "bacon everything," and chicken Parmesan varieties — is launching at Tim Hortons locations across Canada. It’s part of the brand’s bigger push to get customers into cafes after breakfast.
- Executives and chefs reportedly tried thousands of flatbreads over the last two years to identify the perfect combination of cheeses to nail the perfect “ooey gooey factor.”
Catch-up: Looking to bring its breakfast supremacy to lunch and dinner, Timmies launched wraps and bowls last year, which bumped its afternoon and evening sales up 7% compared to 2022. That’s when executives decided it was time for the flatbreads to make their debut.
Why it matters: Tims and flatbreads might seem off — kind of like pineapple on pizza — but since most pizza is sold in the afternoon or early evening (a time of day roughly a quarter of diners go for fast food), it could be the right menu choice to lure in those late-day diners.
- Pizza is the most popular fast-food order in Canada, which isn’t that surprising when you consider that Canadians consume the third-most amount of pizza per person in the world.
Bottom line: Tim Hortons is the most popular food chain by market share in Canada. Even if the pizza isn’t all that good, the volume of people who go to Timmies out of routine could help the chain take a healthy slice of the ~$4 billion Canadian pizza market.—LA
We’re running a short survey to find out how our readers feel about Timmies entering the pizza game. We’ll include the results in tomorrow’s edition. Let us know what you think here.