Restaurant Brands announces ‘Working Together’ plan to improve Tim Hortons

OAKVILLE, Ont. — Restaurant Brands International Inc. announced a plan to improve customer experience and improve sales at its Tim Hortons operations as it reported better-than-expected financial results, despite what it called soft results at the coffee shop chain.

Details of the plan were not immediately available, but chief executive Daniel Schwartz says he believed the “Winning Together” plan would help improve profitability for the company’s restaurant owners.

Restaurant Brands has been feuding with a group of its Tim Hortons franchisee owners over a number of items including cost-cutting measures, cash register outages and a $700-million renovation plan to spruce up its restaurants.

The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, earned US$147.8 million or 59 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31. That compared with a profit of $50.2 million or 21 cents per diluted share a year ago. Revenue totalled $1.25 billion, up from $1 billion in the same quarter last year.

On an adjusted basis, Restaurant Brands, which also owns Burger King and Popeyes, says it earned 66 cents per share for the quarter, up from 36 cents per share a year ago.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 56 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

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