Too bad Horton isn’t alive to revel in the success
Tim Horton had absolutely no idea that lending his name to a donut shop in Hamilton in 1964 would amount to anything, let alone a multi-million dollar empire that would go on to dominate the market in a virtual monopoly.
He was a modestly paid defenceman with the Toronto Maple Leafs who came from borderline poverty in Cochrane, Ontario, born at the beginning of the Great Depression, who fought hard on and off the ice to try to better himself. Hard to imagine now, but an NHL contract in Horton’s day was not a ticket to riches. Far from it. Horton actually worked various summer jobs during his career to make ends meet!
With a new wife, and a growing family, Horton sought any and all business opportunities to try to provide a cushion for his brood, but all to no avail, until he hooked up with a guy named Ron Joyce, an energetic and enterprising man with a dream of riches who was not afraid of 18-hour workdays to fulfill that dream. Joyce aligned himself with Horton, who had just hoisted the Stanley Cup for the third straight season in 1964, and an empire slowly began. Only Tim never lived to see it. Never lived to see Tim Horton’s profit jump 30% in the third quarter this year. Never lived to see the company announce a $200-million stock buyback over the coming year. Never lived to see the company bearing his name dominate the Canadian market and during the third quarter this year alone, open 40 new restaurants in the United States.
Ten years after opening the first Tim Horton’s in Hamilton, Horton died in a car crash coming home to Buffalo after playing for the Sabres at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Horton grew up poor in the dirty thirties in one of the most inhospitable places in Ontario, his married life was rocky, and he never found the peace and contentment he had been looking for, but that he figured a successful business could have aided. If anyone deserves to reap in the reward of the success of Tim Horton’s it is Horton himself.
The next time you grab a coffee at Timmie’s, raise a cup to number 7.