The venerable Tim Hortons coffee-and-doughnut chain appears to have fallen out of favour with Canadians suggests a new poll.
Tim Hortons, which is named after a former professional ice hockey player, dropped from fourth place to 50th on a ranking of 100 companies that Canadians most admire in a study conducted by Leger Marketing and National Public Relations. Tim Hortons corporate reputation dropped 25 percentage points in the annual ranking of Canadian businesses.
The Tim Hortons chain of restaurants recently faced an onslaught of negative publicity as some of its Ontario franchisees clawed back employee benefits, like paid breaks, to help offset the province’s minimum wage hike that went into effect on January 1 of this year. The franchisees said their corporate parent did not provide assistance to help them cope with the increased costs associated with the rise in minimum wage. The move sparked nationwide protests and prompted some consumers to boycott the chain.
However, the survey shows it’s possible for Tim Hortons to move back up in the standings next year. Samsung went from 24th place to fifth this year after fixing issues with some of its smartphones overheating and catching fire.
About 2,100 people 18 years and older assessed each company in the online study between December 19, 2017 and January 29, 2018. The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
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