Tim Hortons has opened its first restaurant in China.
On Tuesday, a line snaked around the block for the grand opening in Shanghai’s central People’s Square.
“I went there tonight -- it was really kind of incredible!” Tasha House, a Canadian who lives and works in Shanghai, told CTV News Channel.
“It was great to see the staff really caring,” House, who braved the long line, added. “We were in the cold for about an hour before we got indoors and we were being served with samples of French vanilla and hand warmers and things like that, so it really kind of had that Canadian feeling.”
The restaurant -- the iconic Canadian chain’s first foray into China -- is chockfull of Canadiana, with plenty of maple leaf decorations, autumn-inspired floor tiles, red and plaid motifs and even a hockey stick door handle.
"We're excited to bring the iconic Tim Hortons brand and a piece of Canada around the globe," Tim Hortons president Alex Macedo said in a statement.
And while the menu features many familiar Tim Hortons staples, it also includes a few unique items for the Chinese market, such as salted egg yolk Timbits and steeped black lemon peach oolong tea.
“There’s so many big coffee chains here, just like there are in Canada and the States,” House said. “But Tim Hortons did a really good marketing campaign leading up to the opening and really selling the whole Canadianity of everything… And (it) used a lot of social media to get free coupons and things like that to drive people to the opening.”
For House, having a Tim Hortons nearby also makes her feel closer to home.
“I’ve lived in China now almost nine years, and getting Tim Hortons tea or French vanilla sent to us is a big treat,” she explained. “So being able to just go a short 30 minute walk or a few subway stops away to actually get that fresh from the place is really incredible… Just seeing the Tim Hortons logo today, you know, I just had a big smile on my face because it just feels like Canada.”
The restaurant, which was opened as part of an exclusive master franchise joint agreement with the U.S.-based Cartesian Capital Group, is the first of 1,500 locations planned for China over the next decade. There are currently more than 4,800 Tim Hortons locations worldwide, including restaurants in the United States, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East and the Philippines.
The opening of the Shanghai Tim Hortons, however, comes at a difficult time for Canada-China relations following Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, and China’s subsequent detention of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. But such political tensions, House says, still haven’t affected the Chinese peoples’ attitudes towards Canada.
“Canadians here, from my experience, are still regarded the way that we expect us to be regarded around the world,” she said. “People get very excited when they ask me where I’m from and I say Canada… So I think that people really want to kind of experience that Canadian identity that they know Tim Hortons to be.”
With files from The Canadian Press
