MGMT3650 Term Paper

Tim Hortons Expansion to the US Market: What went wrong?

Table of Contents Introduction 3 Company Background 4 Expanding to the U.S. 6 U.S. Competitors and Market Share 9 Issues: Competitors & Market Share 9 Leadership Issues 10 Liability of Foreignness 10 Mode of Entry 13 Current Financial Results: 2008 – 2013 (5) Year Plan 15 Tim Hortons New Plan: 2014 – 2018 ‘U.S: A Must-Win Battle’ 16 Recommendations 16 Strategies going forward 16 VRIO Framework 17 References 18

Figure 1: Michael Porter’s five forces 15

Introduction In the present day, there are multiple franchises being established and growing in the community as well as globally Tim Hortons is one of those companies. Due to their chain’s focus on top quality, always fresh products, value, great service and community leadership, Tim Hortons has made a respectable reputation for itself, it is a company that works hard to deliver superior quality products and services for guests and communities through leadership, innovation and partnerships, not only in Canada, where it all started but as well as internationally. In 1984, Tim Hortons opened its first U.S. restaurant in Tonawanda, New York, a suburban community north of Buffalo, which is just 16 kilometers from the Canadian border. (Budak, 2010) Tonawanda is close enough to Canada which gives some recognition into the new U.S. market. Companies that expand internationally can face many problems. In the U.S., Tim Hortons has built an emerging presence in the markets in the Northeast and Midwest U.S. and they are working to accelerating the brand business process and creating convenience. But with every success, they are failures. Tim Hortons is a reputable Canadian franchise known for their coffee and donuts. Can Tim Hortons penetrate the U.S. as well as they have in Canada? It is unlikely, as Tim Hortons is one of Canada’s national identities. Successes are influenced by a number of factors, from producing and marketing their long range of products up to the management and selection of locations to operate their stores. Tim Hortons not only competes with the typical coffee and baked goods chains, but with all restaurants in the quick service industries.
Competition within the quick service industry is based on a number of factors including product quality, brand reputation, convenience, value to the consumer, location, personnel, location, atmosphere, effective marketing campaigns, new product development, and suitable franchisees to run the restaurants, (Tim Hortons Inc., 2013). With much competition, in order for Tim Hortons to succeed, they will have to be more innovative than its main competitors: Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, and McDonald’s. In 1984 Tim Hortons tested international appeal for the first time in Tonawanda, N.Y. (Budak, 2010). For roughly a decade prior to the Wendy’s merger, Tim Hortons growth into the U.S. market was slow with business only being conducted in New York, Michigan, and New England (Budak, 2010). Tim Hortons truly entered the U.S. market through a 1995 merger with Wendy’s Internal, Inc. (Timhortons.com, 2014). Tim Hortons is currently operating 600 stores in 9 U.S. which consist of the North Eastern part of the country. They understands the declining expansion potential in Canada, with 3,000+ store locations, in a market that is only 10% of the U.S. population creates cause for concern in terms of increasing territory. This merger only lasted 10 years as by March 2006; Tim Hortons had regained independence and completed their initial public offering in September of that year (Timhortons.com, 2014). Anywhere people visit; there will be consumers that are loyal to local chains they’ve been visiting for decades.
Company Background
Tim Hortons was founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario. It was first known under the name "Tim Horton Donuts"; the name was later abbreviated to "Tim Horton's" and then changed to "Tim Hortons" without the possessive apostrophe which is what it is today. Tim Hortons was founded by Miles G."Tim" Horton, who played in the National Hockey League from 1949 until a tragic car accident took his life in 1974 (Timhortons.com, 2014) Tim Hortons is a Canadian multinational franchise known for its donuts and coffee.
While the company was starting up, operations were all domestic. The first Tim Hortons restaurants offered only offered coffee and donuts. A bite sized donut hole (Timbit).was introduced in 1976 and has grown to become a significant symbol of their success with 35 different flavors to choose from. Tim Hortons continuously grew so that meant new products were added. As consumer became more accustom to Tim Hortons donuts and coffee, variety became another factor to their success so they began to release meals and food products that were out of the range of the bakery/coffee theme. In the 1980’s the new products included: muffins (1981), cakes (1981), pies (1982), croissants (1983), cookies (1984), and soups & chili (1985). To engage in local responsiveness, Tim Hortons reacted to different consumer preferences and sandwiches (1993), bagels (1996), flavored cappuccino (1997), Café Mocha (1999) and Iced Cappuccino (1999) were introduced and today, there are still new products getting added to their menu. (Timhortons.com, 2014) A variety of products has become a strong attraction for Tim Hortons, allowing customers with different tastes to visit their chains and become loyal. The chain's biggest hit and still remains today is the coffee. Many different blends have been introduced even in canisters so consumers are able to enjoy their special blends at home.
In 1984, the first restaurant opened in the United U.S. (Timhortons.com, 2014) Opening new restaurants internationally is very important to Tim Hortons, not only because it can create profit, but also it allows Tim Hortons brand to be recognized as an international competitor in the coffee and baked goods industry. According to Tim Hortons annual report, the strategy going into the U.S. market includes: (Tim Hortons Inc, 2013) * Focusing on our core growth markets and building critical mass * Brand positioning * Innovation * Community involvement
By making these resources the priority and focal point in the new market, Tim Hortons is able to specialize, and create markets that will in turn provide the most revenue for them not only for immediate results, but also in long term prospects. Focusing on the main resources, Tim Hortons is able to expand their operations and establish partnerships in other countries.
Expanding to the U.S.
Tim Hortons expansion into the U.S. market was very similar to when Target entered the Canadian market. There was struggle to enter because of the competition with similar companies such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, and McDonald’s. When expanding, Tim Horton did not consider the correct modes of entry and plan it out properly. The article “The Donut Offensive” narrates the incidence of when Tim Hortons entered the U.S. market to replace Dunkin’ donuts. When the famous American donut shop shut down, Tim Hortons saw this as an opportunity to expand this business and enter; still, the timing was not correct. This is because, it brought nothing but an absolute surprise that was not necessarily in a good or accepting way to the consumers of Dunkin’ donuts whom, were now forced to now change to Tim Horton.
“At 6 p.m. on a Friday last July, nine Dunkin' Donuts restaurants throughout Manhattan closed shop quietly-a little early, but otherwise inconspicuously. Over the next 56 hours, an army of contractors and designers gutted, rebuilt and re-equipped the spaces. By Monday morning, sporting red balloons and free coffee, the stores reopened as Tim Hortons outlets. Laura Friedman, a 27-year-old professional who bought her morning coffee at the Penn Station Dunkin' Donuts for months, says she was slightly annoyed to arrive that Monday morning to find her regular coffee no longer available.” (Budak, 2010)
The statement above shows that the timing of the company’s entry mode was not well thought out and the options were not weighed out either. This was not a good way to capture a new market; it’s very risky, can be very expensive, and waste large amounts of money if the business does not succeed. Tim Hortons imposing on Dunkin’ Donuts customers with expectations could be a smart move as some customers will try the Canadian Tim Hortons chain out but it is still a difficult stage of transition to accept that their local coffee shop that they’ve been continuously visiting and loyal is now replaced by another shop. Another problem with expanding to the U.S. market, (Barmak, 2013) points out in her article that Tim Hortons flaw was revealed. Before Tim Hortons started, they use to make their own donuts from scratch everyday which means the business was actually “always fresh” as their slogan, but this is not the case anymore. Now Tim Hortons is just like any other typical coffee and baked goods chains in the quick service industries, they sell frozen donuts that are already pre-made. When the news was released to the public, the business suffered and continues to suffer as they do not live up to their slogan “always fresh”. Before entering a new market, Tim Hortons should fix their current issue to prevent the expansion for its risks of failures. Tim Hortons currently has a 50% joint- venture with Maidstone Bakeries that would supply the partially baked goods to be finished at franchisees’ locations. A group of franchisees took the company to court, citing that the new system only benefitted the franchisor since the unit price of par-baked goods increased costs significantly, because of the special ovens. On February 24, 2012 the court ruled in favor of franchisor Tim Hortons, with the judge ruling that Tim Hortons’ switch to par-baking did not entail the company taking advantage of its franchisees. However, Tim Hortons is no longer part owner in Maidstone Bakery. The European company that owned the proprietary technology behind par-baking exercised its option to buy its way out of the contract. Tim Hortons has agreed to purchase donuts and Timbits from Maidstone until 2016. This contract cancellation may represent a serious setback for Tim Hortons’ effort at vertical integration, since it is committed to par-baking and loses control of part of its supply chain (Hunter, 2012).
With this problem, Tim Hortons expanding to U.S. is very risky. Back when Tim Hortons freshly baked all of their products in their Brantford, Ontario bakery it was ideal as they were “always fresh” but in 2001 they became a joint venture with a non-Canadian company and sold their bakery to a Swiss food giant, Aryzta. This meant that all their products are now bought frozen which contradicts the Tim Hortons slogan "always fresh". Selling their bakery that started in Canada, it will carry on to the new markets. Expanding into the U.S. with this reputation is not good for the company. An article “Extra-large trouble trouble” presents a case of franchise owners in the U.S. that joined and invested in Tim Hortons that are suing or placing a lawsuit on the franchise because they are losing too much profit as a result of inflated prices of frozen products. The article "Dark, rich and bitter" by Friscolanti, Michael, supports the frozen food dilemma, thus, provides an insight on a 1.95-billion dollar lawsuit that was filed following the company's decision to serve freshly baked doughnuts.
The problem with Tim Horton’s strategy is that they are moving far too slowly in a market that caters to coffee and donut consumers. Tim Hortons currently has 1/6 of their stores operating in Buffalo (Budak, 2010), and only in 1995’s merger with Wendy’s, did Tim Hortons truly ramp up its expansion strategy. Tim Hortons lacked any strategic form of entry into the U.S. market resulting in a laggard entry; their scale of entry was subpar, and resulted in little growth opportunity.
If we compare Tim Hortons U.S. strategy to their strategy utilized in Canada we see two entirely different organizations. Tim Hortons has one restaurant for every 12,500 Canadians, and controls 80% of the coffee, donut, and tea market (Kirby, 2008). Tim Hortons executives claimed they would have 500 stores, however by 2007, only 398 existed (500th store opened in 2008) (Timhortons.com, 2014). The issue is as a Canadian based organization; Tim Hortons knows they cannot leverage its home country advantage of being a ‘Canadian icon’, as that is irrelevant in the U.S. and it is more of a disadvantage for them. Also, due to Tim Hortons building their fan base around being a ‘small-town hockey loving’ organization, they themselves created the conditions of foreign liability; unless Tim Hortons markets in U.S. with hockey roots such as Detroit (Budak, 2010) they will have a hard time marketing themselves against companies like Dunkin’ Donuts who capture the baseball and football market that are much larger in U.S. (Kirby, 2008).
U.S. Competitors and Market Share
Tim Hortons falls under the coffee and donut segment in the quick service industry. This segment places the Canadian company in direct competition with U.S. giant McDonalds, Starbucks, and the two donut rivals Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme.
“Starbucks controls 21 per cent of the quick service restaurant coffee segment, followed by Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's at 18 and 11 per cent respectively. Dunkin' Donuts in particular poses the biggest threat to Tim Hortons' plans.” (Kirby, 2008)

In the entire industry Tim Hortons earns $5.5 billion of the market capital (Budak, 2010),

“Tim's may be North America's fourth-largest fast-food chain, but it still lacks the global reach of the top three: McDonald's, Yum Brands (owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell) and Starbucks.” (J. Budak, 2010). Dunkin’ Donuts currently operates 7,015 franchises in 36 U.S. (dunkindounuts.com), while Krispy Kreme operates 828 stores globally (krispkreme.com). According to Jason Kirby (2008), “Tim Hortons has far fewer stores (one to every 210,000 people, versus 56,000 for Dunkin' Donuts and 21,000 for McDonald's) Micky-D's is that much more convenient”.

Issues: Competitors & Market Share
Competing with established donut and coffee chains, coupled with McDonalds aggressive campaign for coffee sales, illuminates how hard Tim Hortons needs to push to increase past their North Eastern foothold into rival territory for a piece of 330+ million consumers. Tim Hortons biggest failure comes from its attempt to rival its direct rival Dunkin’ Donuts. Dunkin’ Donuts runs the North East of America, and as mentioned in a previous article (The donut offensive) when Tim Hortons attempted to go from nothing to overthrowing Dunkin’Donuts in their own territory, proved unsuccessful. Tim Hortons purchased a failing donut chain and faced a marketing blitz from Dunkin’ Donuts, which earns US$5.3 billion in sales (Kirby, 2008). Due to the similarities between Dunkin’ Donuts and Tim Hortons, the winner is the organization that gets to a new market first (Kirby, 2008). Now logically speaking, why would Tim Hortons go from slow stagnant growth to attempting to outgrow Dunkin’ Donuts in their strongest market? It is sheer abject failure on Tim Hortons strategy. Tim Hortons should work on markets where Dunkin’ Donuts hold was weakest or non-existent. The results of this erroneous plan was the closure of Tim Hortons stores located in New England, and a sound victory for Dunkin’ Donuts.
“But 45 of those restaurants, which were added when Tim Hortons bought a small doughnut chain in New England in 2004, were duds. As House told investors in 2006: "We got our ass kicked in New England--that's plain English." (Kirby, 2008)
Leadership Issues In 2011 former CEO Don Schroeder abruptly left the company due to a dispute over succession planning (Cowan, 2012). Fast forward nine months and the slot is still vacant, temporarily filled by interim leader CEO Paul House. While House has the expertise, it is Canadian expertise at the end of the day. Tim Hortons needs to find a CEO with experience operating a large fast food organization in the United U.S., “For long-term growth, the company must continue its international expansion, and its record in the American market is decidedly middling” (Cowan, 2012). This shows a certain level of ignorance when it comes to the idea that Canada and the U.S. are similar culturally, and that conducting business across the border is no different; therefore no change in leadership is necessary. Tim Hortons is not failing in the traditional sense when it comes to entering the U.S. market as a foreign business, but rather they are failing to grow faster, and make gains in a timely manner.
Liability of Foreignness
Business organizations could expand internationally by replicating a part of their value chain, such as a sales and marketing format, in other countries. Success in the global market depends on understanding the cultures you are doing business with. Multinational firms, can encounter barriers when entering into a host country market. MNEs, here fore, need their own firm-specific advantages to overcome the “home-court” advantages of local firms. Tim Hortons in not excluded in this case, they saw the need to expand to U.S. after so much success in Canada. Expanded markets entice many executives into going global. William Edwards of All Business explains that going global can reduce a company's reliance on local and national markets. Larger markets also mean the potential for greater profit, so companies go global to seek new business opportunities and even to expand the range of goods and services that they offer. Sometimes businesses expand to under-exploited regions to gain market dominance before an industry competitor expands into the region. Its core competence again, is coffee and donuts (Peng, 2013)
Brand name and company image, including its popular motto “always fresh” is the most important competitive advantage for Tim Hortons. Large number of stores also allows them to take advantage of economies of scale in marketing and supply. Tim Hortons policy is to refresh coffee every 20 minutes, this has created brand awareness to the company, a lot of consumers prefer to purchase a freshly brewed coffee each time they buy a cup of coffee. This gives them a comparative advantage over their competitors. International management theory, and specially internalization theory (Anna and Nicolai, 2011) has long maintained that firms need proprietary or ownership advantages to offset the liabilities of foreignness when they enter foreign markets. Tim Hortons chain's focus on top quality, always fresh product, value, great service and community leadership has allowed it to grow into the largest quick service restaurant chain in Canada specializing in always fresh coffee, baked goods and home-style lunches. This can boost their brand recognition in the U.S. as American consumers usually stick to the brand they know rather than trying new products. The challenge for Tim Hortons in its U.S. expansion is how to translate its runaway appeal to the U.S. consumers. This expansion has faced fierce opposition by other food service giants which has contributed to the company closing down 36 locations, mostly in the New England region (Tilak, 2011). They are however fighting for brand recognition in U.S. against similar businesses that are part of the U.S. culture.
Another problem faced by Tim Hortons is the fluctuations’ in Canadian to U.S. dollar exchange rates which can affect overall results, as well as the price of common shares and certain dividends that the company pays. The majority of Tim Hortons operations, income, revenues, expenses and cash flows are in Canadian dollars and results are reported in Canadian dollars as well. So when the U.S. dollar falls in value relative to the Canadian dollar, any profits reported by the Company’s U.S. business segment contribute less to (or, for losses, do not impact as significantly) their consolidated Canadian dollar earnings because of the weaker U.S. dollar. Conversely, when the U.S. dollar increases in value relative to the Canadian dollar, any profits reported by the Company’s U.S. business segment contribute more to (or, for losses, impact more significantly) their consolidated Canadian dollar earnings because of the stronger U.S. dollar. Royalties paid to the company by their international restaurant owners are based on a conversion of local currencies to U.S. dollars using the prevailing exchange rate, and changes in the exchange rate could adversely affect Tim Hortons revenues. As a result, U.S. and other shareholders seeking U.S. dollar total returns, including increases in the share price and dividends paid, are subject to foreign exchange risk as the U.S. dollar rises and falls against the Canadian dollar.
Tim Hortons’ continue to struggle for brand identity in United U.S., markets has also seen the company entering some NCAA Football stadiums such as Ohio State, and NHL arenas like Nassau Coliseum, home of the New York Islanders ice hockey team. Recently, Tim Hortons started a franchise incentive program (FIP) that included interest free loans for equipment packages, to attract new franchisees in U.S. (Hunter, 2012; Tim Hortons Inc., 2013).
Based on the integration- responsiveness framework, Tim Hortons have adopted the home replication strategy, by duplicating home country based competencies in foreign countries, Tim Hortons key menu offerings have remained substantially the same, all their pastries are same everywhere Tim Horton is found. They also have tailored their menu offerings to meet the needs of its international guests in connection with their International expansions. The U.S. expansion is moving in an upscale direction by promoting items such as pomegranate-cheese Danish rather than simple donuts names (Tice, 2010).
Mode of Entry
Tim Hortons uses a non- equity mode through franchising to enter the U.S. market. Franchising is a typical North American process for rapid market expansion but it is gaining traction in other parts of the world. Franchising works well for firms that have a repeatable business model (e.g. food outlets) that can be easily transferred into other markets. Tim Hortons is one of the companies that adopted this strategy when entering the U.S. market. Two caveats are required when considering using the franchise model. The first is that your business model should either be very unique or have strong brand recognition that can be utilized internationally and secondly you may be creating your future competition in your franchisee. Tim Hortons uses third party distributors to supply similar products to system restaurants across U.S. and its coffee roasting plant in based in in Rochester, New York. The following four aspects summarize Tim Hortons franchise and business model; Franchising, currently 99% of its stores are operated by franchisees. The company has a long-time tradition of collaborating with its franchisees to grow business and build positive connections. Franchisees often own up to 3 or 4 outlets each, which also increases their stake in the stores in which they operate. Also the Real-estate holdings has a controlling interest (either by owning or maintaining the head lease) in a substantial amount of the real-estate, the company is consistently able to protect its brand integrity and control the development of its property. The business model of Tim Hortons which includes vertical integration approach helps improve product quality and consistency as well as protect proprietary interest of the company. The company has its own distribution centers and manufacturing facilities to integrate its product and supply chain to achieve economies of scale, as well as preserve product quality, and training centers to ensure exceptional customer service. The last model involves a “we fit anywhere” attitude. The company uses this approach to allow it to adapt its brand presence in order to pursue both standard and non-standard expansion prospects (e.g., airport, school kiosks), as well as create opportunities to form strategic alliances. This integration of supply chain is considered crucial to the Tim Hortons business model, allowing it to control costs, provide for the franchisees in a reliable manner, and contribute to profitability (Tim Hortons Inc., 2013).
According to Michael Porter’s five forces, in competitive industry, firms have to compete aggressively for a market share, which results in low profits. Rivalry among competitors is intense when: there are many competitors; exit barriers are high; industry of growth is slow or negative; products are not differentiated and can be easily substituted; competitors are of equal size; low customer loyalty. Strong rivalry Companies in the U.S. range from small local independent coffee and snack shops to the well-capitalized national chains. For instance McDonald’s has increased competitive pressure when they entered into the breakfast and coffee lines; thereby offering superior quantities for identical prices. Thus in the U.S. each of these rivals are substantially larger and have a competitive advantage in buying power and marketing effort.

Figure 1: Michael Porter’s five forces

The bargaining power of suppliers allows suppliers to sell higher priced or low quality raw materials to their buyers. This directly affects the buying firms’ profits because it has to pay more for materials. Due to the “Tim Hortons Coffee Partnership”, supplier strength is relatively low. Tim Hortons has established a solid partnership with its farmers in South America. To gain brand awareness in the U.S., Tim Hortons has used its successful strategy by teaming up with local brands such as Cold Stone creamery in stores in 10U.S. (Tice, 2010). This would help the company attract more customers in the future.
Current Financial Results: 2008 – 2013 (5) Year Plan
From 2008-2013 Tim Hortons has ramped up its level of aggression in the U.S. market. As a result Tim Hortons has gone from an operating income of $525 million in 2009, to $621 million in 2013. Most of this however is from increasing in store revenue through new strategic planning (more items, better logistics, etc.). However, based on Tim Hortons 2013 performance review, minimum target growth has not been met (Diluted EPS $2.82 versus target of $2.87-$2.97). A particular point of interest is the expected U.S. growth of same-store sales was projected to be 3% - 5%, wherein actuality it was a meager 1.8%. This is an important figure as it shows that Tim Hortons is not retaining customers (for whatever reason) in their already established locations. The financial facts that help highlight the cost of improperly combating Dunkin’ Donuts, and the subsequent closure of restaurants is outlined in the mere $5.1 million in operating income for 2013 ($6.6 million in closed restaurants). (Timhortons.com 2014)
Tim Hortons New Plan: 2014 – 2018 ‘U.S: A Must-Win Battle’ According to Tim Hortons new strategic plan titled “Winning in the New Era” the United U.S. “represents one of the world’s largest foodservice markets and remains very attractive in terms of growth, stability, and consumer demand” (Timhortons.com, 2014). Tim Hortons seem to finally be appreciating how vital the United U.S. market is in terms of growing profit, and capturing viable international markets. Tim Hortons is in a very rare situation, as it is very uncommon to find a company who is running out of places in its home country to expand.
“Over the strategic plan period, our goal in the U.S. is to put the business on a strong footing to be scaled aggressively beyond our existing core and priority markets.” (Timhortons.com, 2014)

Recommendations
Based on our research conducted, we conclude the following:
Strategies going forward
The current strategies that Tim Hortons has used is a crude version of a home replication strategy. In Canada, Tim Hortons is known for their community involvement and Canadian cult, making the decision to open a franchise just over the border and duplicating home country products and services for a decade, resulted in minimal growth. Partnering with Cold Stone Creamery, Tim Hortons used the global standardization strategy by maintaining a low cost advantage. Moving forward, to counter the disadvantages of lack of local responsiveness, strategic partnership should be sustained as the success of Tim Hortons in the U.S. continues to grow with strong alliances. (Peng, 2013)
VRIO Framework
Looking at Tim Hortons from the perspective of these four important aspects:
Value: After selling their bakery, Tim Hortons moved to frozen products which swayed away from their “always fresh” slogan which decreased value in their products.
Rarity: With much competition in the U.S., Tim Hortons is not rare as there are many chains that are comparable to the simple donuts and coffee shop.
Imitability: Being a Canadian franchise, the products of Tim Hortons are easily imitable but the intangible good will that comes with the brand of Tim Hortons is hard to imitate much like the Ikea brand.
Organization: With the decision to expand to the U.S., Tim Hortons did not leverage the full potential of its resources and capabilities. Entering into their competitor’s (Dunkin’ Donuts) strongest territory was a complete failure.
Within the VRIO framework, we recommend that in order to become successful in the foreign markets, Tim Horton needs to recreate the imitability as they have in Canada and win over Americans by keeping low costs as well, Tim Hortons should have stronger leadership that better understand the U.S. market. (Peng, 2013)

References
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