Throwing away goodwill
Seldom in the long history of buying and selling has a merchant managed to wrap itself in such a quilt of good-feeling, human warmth and caring community as has Tim Hortons.
Shrewd branding has helped turn this coffee-anddoughnut chain into the home-away-from-home of a nation, a welcoming oasis on road trips across a vast land, a community drop-in centre in virtually any part of the country.
The Timbits, the rolled-up rims, drive-thrus that have been operated (for advertising’s sake anyway) by the likes of NHL star Sidney Crosby are as comforting to Canadians as the flag.
Ron Joyce, the co-founder of the chain who obtained all shares in the company after the death of its namesake in 1974, parlayed familiar fare, reliably clean bathrooms and all that heartwarming iconography into a place on the lists of Canada’s richest people, enjoying a net worth of about $1.4 billion.
How disappointing, then, that his son, namesake and presumptive heir — and the daughter of Tim Horton who is Ron Joyce Jr.’s wife and business partner — are taking out their wrath about an increased minimum wage in Ontario on employees at franchises they own.
No one expected business owners to applaud the Ontario minimum-wage hike to $14 from $11.60 an hour on Jan. 1, then to $15 on Jan. 1, 2019. There have been predictable and recurring shrieks about the falling skies it will surely cause.
A Bank of Canada report has warned that it will reduce job growth and cause higher prices. Many economists argue, however, that such fears are overblown.
Apparently, the children of Tim Hortons’ founders are not so confident.
At a franchise they own in Cobourg, Ont., employees have said they were given a document to sign from Ron Joyce Jr. Enterprises Ltd. acknowledging that they would lose paid breaks, health benefits and other incentives as a result of the provincial government initiative.
The owners, according to employees who spoke anonymously to media, were at their winter home in Florida.
Premier Kathleen Wynne called the treatment of Tim Hortons staff in Cobourg “the act of a bully” and invited Joyce the younger, if he wanted a fight, to pick it with her.
A few years ago, Tim Hortons branding executive Peter Nowlan said the core of company marketing was the idea of “warmth in a cold world.”
In Cobourg, some people with long roots in the enterprise seem more than a little off message.