Tims rolls out kids’ menu amid push to bring brand back to roots

Tim Hortons launched its first kid s’ menu across Canada on Wednesday, an apparent attempt to claw families away from competitors such as McDonald s as the coffee behemoth works to rehabilitate its image.

The new menu of grilled cheeses, chicken strips and cream-cheese chicken wraps is part of a series of promised food innovations and comes as the brand starts to recuperate after a protracted battle with discontented franchise es.

“It’s a been a fun ride ,” Tim Hortons president Alex Maced os aid. “Actually, fun is probably the worst word I could use.”

The ongoing saga between the franchisees and Tim Hortons parent Restaurant Brand s International Inc. bubbled up in September, when Tim Hortons locked the lead er of the franchisee revolt out of his stores in Alberta, accusing him of breaking an agreement that forbid s franchisees from publicly disparaging the brand.

David Hughes, then-president of the Great White North Franchisee Association, denied the allegation.

But this week, Maced o said relationships with franchises were on the mend , pointing to meetings across Canad a and a plan for improving customer experience that he said took input from store owners. Franchisees, he said , will finish the year more profitable than last year. “We’re trying to go back to our roots and be the brand that everyone feels really good about in Canada ,” he said .“When we drop the ball, people feel it.”

“We acknowledge that we had our shortcomings in communicating with our franchisees and some of the activations that we d id ,” he said . “We’re not out of the wood s ... But we’re in a much better place than we were in the beginning of the year, no doubt .”

Maced o’s return to the Tim Hortons roots includes a revamped advertising strategy, which saw the chain fly the sole hockey team in Kenya to Canad a to scrimmage with NHLers.

In ad d ition to the kid s’ menu — which will start in the U.S. later this month — Tims has recently unveiled all-day breakfast and announced a future replacement of its lea ky coffee lid. Ma ce do also signalled plans to“innovate on coffee” but wouldn’ t say what change she hoped to make or new products he hoped to release.