Tim Hortons Inc. and the parent of Cold Stone Creamery said Friday they will team up to create up to 100 co-branded stores that will offer customers both ice cream and coffee shop fare.
Tim Hortons and privately-owned Kahala Corp. said they will co-brand up to 50 stores in each chain in the U.S. by this spring.
Coffee and baked goods chain Tim Hortons is one of the largest quick service chains in Canada and operates more than 500 locations in the U.S. The chain has a steady business during the morning and lunchtime hours while Cold Stone drives “significant customer traffic and sales in the evening market,” the companies said.
Columbus Business First reports that the Cold Stone’s store in the South Campus Gateway near Ohio State University will open Saturday as a co-branded location, while the company expects to test two or three stores in Central Ohio this year.
Diane Slopek-Weber, a spokeswoman for Tim Horton’s, said the company has identified stores to co-brand in Ohio but declined to provide additional details as talks with franchisees are ongoing.
Knowlton of Kahala said the companies are teaming up partly because of the difference in timing of peak business hours.
“Cold Stone’s highest traffic volume occurs in the evening while Tim Hortons highest traffic volume occurs in the morning and afternoon,” Knowlton said. “The complementary day-parts will increase our customer bases and drive additional revenue for our franchisees.”
The companies said they recently co-branded two existing Tim Hortons locations in Rhode Island with positive results. Other states set for co-branding this year: Michigan, New York, Maine and Connecticut.
Cold Stone has eight Central Ohio shops, while Tim Horton’s, which Wendy’s spun off as a separate publicly traded company in 2007, has more than 50 in the region.
