Tim Horton’s dream coming true in Dubai

Inspired by a coffee shop in Chicago, the professional Canadian hockey player eventually set up his own in the southern Canadian city of Hamilton in 1964.

It would be the first café in a chain of over 3,000 shops worldwide, including seven in the UAE, known as Tim Hortons.

Sitting inside the bustling cafe on Shaikh Zayed Road on Wednesday, Horton’s daughter Jeri Horton Joyce and her husband Ron looked around in awe at what Horton’s dream had become.

Jeri Horton and Ron at the cafe. — KT photo by Mukesh Kamal

“It’s a long way from home, who would have ever thought this could happen,” Ron said, as he glanced around the café buzzing with customers.

The couple, now the owner and operator of several franchises in the coffee chain, is on their first visit to Dubai. But before hitting the beach, the couple discussed how one man’s small dream turned into a multi-billion dollar reality.

“Dad tried everything from opening a car dealership to a burger joint, but in the end he found this and it worked,” Jeri said. Born on January 12, 1930, Horton didn’t get a chance to see his cafés blossom across the globe after he was killed in a car accident in 1974.

Eventually, Jeri and her husband Ron decided to become franchisees and currently own and operate three Tim Hortons restaurants.

Bringing the franchise to the UAE in 2011 had its challenges, including shipping the products here from Canada, but it’s been smooth sailing for the most part, said David Roy, who manages the international operations of Tim Hortons.

“There were some minor customisations, such as bringing in the za’atar croissants, just to localise it,” he said. However, most of the items found on the menu in the UAE are identical to the Canadian menu, he added.

The café and bake shop specialises in coffee and doughnuts, but also serves an array of other items including bagels and chili.

“We also brought the mac and cheese here, which is on our US menu,” Roy said.

The chain continues to expand across the Gulf with shops expected to open in Doha and Muscat in June, said Amjaad Al Salmi of Dubai-based Apparel Group, which has partnered with Tim Hortons to market the chain in the country. Currently, the seven Tim Hortons locations are in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Fujairah.

Al Salmi said five more cafés are expected to open across the country by the summer, including locations in The Dubai Mall, Al Wasl Square and Jumeirah Centre.

Outside of the Middle East and North America, the chain has self-serve operations in the UK.

As customers shuffled into the café for the lunch hour rush, Roy couldn’t help but be thankful for how far the chain has come.

“We built it and now it’s the people who support it,” he said.

“Dubai, you’ve accepted us, it’s amazing, thank you very much.” -alizafar@khaleejtimes.com