News Releases | Corporate

TIM HORTONS & CUISINE DE FRANCE JOINT VENTURE MOVES FORWARD

Oakville, Ontario (July 17, 2001) -- Tim Hortons announced today that Brantford, Ontario will be the site of its new par-bake manufacturing facility, being built with its Joint Venture partner, Cuisine de France. The Joint Venture was announced March 6th, 2001, bringing Cuisine de France's innovative European bakery manufacturing technology to North America.

The Brantford facility will be a 230,000 square-foot state of the art manufacturing plant, expected to be operational by the Fall of 2002. It will initially employ approximately 100 people in the Hamilton-Brantford region, and will cost in the $125 million (Cdn.) range, split between the Joint Venture partners.

"We are very excited about getting this project underway", states Paul D. House, president & chief operating officer of Tim Hortons. "This new venture with Cuisine de France is one more instance where we are raising the bar on the standards of quality we will be able to deliver throughout our Tim Hortons chain", he added.

The Brantford plant, with the capacity to supply all Canadian and U.S. Tim Hortons stores in addition to other Cuisine de France accounts, will enable Tim Hortons to introduce a variety of freshly baked baguettes to enhance the chain's lunch program, plus new specialty breads and other confectionary items in its restaurants.

"The location was a natural choice for us since the Tim Hortons chain is so deeply rooted in this area. The plant will be near Hamilton, the birthplace of the Tim Hortons chain, close at hand to our head office, and provides an excellent transportation gateway to our Canadian stores. It is also ideally situated for exporting these products to our U.S. stores and the various accounts that Cuisine de France has developed south of the border", continued House.

Cuisine de France, a subsidiary of IAWS GROUP plc headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is acclaimed for its technology and expertise in manufacturing par-baked products. Best known for its signature baguettes, the company currently supplies a variety of par-baked goods to numerous retail outlets in Ireland and the U.K. Its emergence in the U.S. market since 1999 offered the ideal catalyst for entering into a Joint Venture with Tim Hortons. In addition to supplying baguettes and breads to Tim Hortons, the Joint Venture facility will allow Cuisine de France to increase its client base within the North American market.

"We are delighted to see our partnership with Tim Hortons come to fruition with the plant site now underway in Brantford, Ontario", says Ronan McNamee, managing director of Cuisine de France. "This takes us another step closer to realizing our goal of establishing Cuisine de France as a leading brand in the North American market. We believe this facility will be a showcase within the baking industry, again proving the viability of producing high-quality par-baked goods for a number of prestigious accounts", he adds.

Tim Hortons, which merged with Wendy's International, Inc. in 1995, is Canada's largest national chain, specializing in coffee and baked goods, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange (WEN). Tim Hortons sales for 2000 were over $1.9 billion (Canadian). Cuisine de France is a leading foodservice company which supplies and manufactures baked goods under its own brand name to retail outlets in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is a subsidiary of IAWS GROUP plc, a $1 billion (U.S.) in sales Irish company, which trades on the London and Irish Stock Exchanges.