Do we like them?

Do we like Tim Hortons?

Canadian coffee and doughnut chain with about 4,000 restaurants, based in Toronto, Canada.

Our score: 4 out of 10. Popular and woven into Canadian life, but regulators found its app broke privacy law and franchisees have sued it. We'd hold off for now.

Tim Hortons is Canada's best-known coffee chain, with about 4,000 restaurants. It's owned by Restaurant Brands International. In 2026 it announced plans for roughly 80 new restaurants plus renovations, according to a Globe and Mail report.

The big privacy row came in June 2022. The federal privacy commissioner and the Quebec, BC and Alberta offices jointly found the app recorded users' movements every few minutes, even when it wasn't open. They said the permission request misled people. Tims turned the feature off soon after the probe began.

Franchisees have also fought with head office. Two class actions over the ad fund were settled in 2019, with the company putting C$6 million into the fund over two years. A separate class action alleges a no-hire clause in franchise agreements breached the Competition Act, and the company said that claim was without merit.

On the plus side, in May 2026 it said it would hire 10,000 local employees and scale back on temporary foreign workers. It's also working with FLO on EV fast chargers at up to 50 locations by the end of 2026. Overall we think it's mixed, and we'd hold off.