連鎖Business News

Tim Hortons, Canada’s largest quick service restaurant chain specializing in coffee and donut items, just opened a much-touted “innovation café” which has a clean design and offers Instagram-ready treats and food items that are more typically seen at higher-end eateries. Tim’s global marketing chief acknowledges that the new store is tailored to young, urban professionals, a segment of customers that this Boomers-beloved “parent’s brand” is trying to attract.

Upscaling and targeting millennials are definitely two trends that quick service restaurants should pay attention to.  Like McDonald’s, Boston Pizza, Panera Bread and many other well-known quick service restaurants, Tim Horton is rethinking how to reach millennial and Gen Z diners. As explained by Susan Weaver, managing director of Pearl Strategy & Innovation Design Inc., millennials are an especially sought-after market because of their size, their larger disposable income, tendency to eat out more and desire for convenience. Vince Sgabellone of NPD Group, a food industry expert, also notes that people are willing to spend a little more in quick service as long as they get the quality and the service that they expect with the premium pricing. These are the reasons that quick-service market in general has been shifting upscale for a while now and examples include Starbucks’s “reserve” brand and McDonald’s McCafe. This segment of the market is growing at about 8%, whereas quick-service restaurants as a whole are only growing at about 2-3%.

It is a good time for Tim Hortons to test how far they can stretch their brand and edge towards the “fast casual” tier and how much more they can charge for their items. Possibility also exists for Tim Hortons to expand the concept of innovation café as a separate offering for millennials in every big urban city.

 

Source：https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/upscale-tim-hortons-shows-how-far-restaurants-will-go-to-lure-young-diners-1.4526797