Faced with declining sales at its existing stores, Tim Hortons is busily looking to reinvent itself.
In just the past few years, the iconic doughnut and coffee chain has tried out home delivery, a plant-based Beyond Meat burger, and even a controversial smoked-meat sausage breakfast sandwich.
The chain’s latest foray into the new and untested? A line of breakfast cereals based on its Timbits.
Post Foods Canada ― makers of Shreddies and Sugar Crisp ― announced Monday it’s launching cereals based on Timbits flavours. The first two to hit the shelves will be Post Timbits Chocolate Glazed and Post Timbits Birthday Cake.
The company says the cereals will be available in “major” supermarkets across Canada early this year.
“We all know how hard it is to resist Timbits, so we are very excited to be able to bring the fun of enjoying Timbits to cereal bowls across the country,” said David Bagozzi, vice president of marketing at Post Foods Canada, in a statement.
Rumours that Tim Hortons was planning a breakfast cereal exploded last October when Twitter user Rob Turudic posted pictures of Tim Hortons cereal boxes. The images shared at that time turned out to be very similar to the images Post Foods released Monday.
Tim Hortons has seen falling sales in its existing locations over the past few years, even as its parent company ― Restaurant Brands International (RBI) ― is aggressively moving to expand the chain worldwide.
Same-store sales dropped by 1.4 per cent in the third fiscal quarter, even as Tim Hortons’ sister brands at RBI, Burger King and Popeye’s, saw strong same-store sales growth. That has caused some industry analysts to question the company’s strategy.
RBI CEO Jose Cil said last October the chain is struggling to compete for the lunchtime crowd, noting a “gap in sales of our sandwiches and wraps.”
The chain is offsetting some of that weakness with aggressive plans to enter new markets. Tim Hortons launched in China this year, amid plans by RBI to expand the number of Tim Hortons, Burger King and Popeye’s locations to 40,000, from the current 26,000.