Tim Hortons‘ iconic Roll Up the Rim contest is about to get a lot shorter and more complicated as the coffee chain moves to slash costs while pushing customers to use its mobile app.
It’s also going to involve a lot less rolling, and probably a lot less winning.
The company announced a new set of rules for its annual Roll Up the Rim contest on Wednesday, and those rules are a far cry from what Canadians might be used to.
Essentially, the contest will come and go before you know it — and you won’t see nearly as many discarded roll-up cups lying around this spring. Instead, Canadians will be expected to collect “rolls” through their Tims Rewards account, which can be redeemed online or through the Tim Hortons app.
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Roll Up the Rim will run for four weeks from March 11 until April 7, according to the newly published rules. That’s much shorter than last year, when Tim Hortons ran the promotion for 10 weeks (Feb. 6 until Apr. 17, 2019).
1:54 Tim Hortons changes “Roll Up the Rim”
Tim Hortons changes “Roll Up the Rim”
Additionally, physical roll-up cups will only be available in-store for the first two weeks of the contest. Tim Hortons will hand out digital “rolls” to customers’ accounts for the full four weeks, meaning you can get two entries per coffee over the first 14 days.
Customers who buy a hot drink with a reusable cup will get three digital rolls for all four weeks of the contest.
“Tim Hortons has modernized its iconic contest to allow for a combination of paper, digital and sustainable play,” the company said in a news release announcing the rules on Wednesday.
Tim Hortons also plans to give away 1.8 million reusable cups for free on March 10, just before the contest gets underway.
The company says its efforts will make Tim Hortons more sustainable. However, it’s unclear how that will work, as most customers who earn a digital “roll” will still be buying their coffee in a paper cup — just not one with a prize under the rim.
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Tim Hortons chose a “hybrid” model of paper cups and digital “rolls” to accommodate those who prefer the old way of doing it, according to Hope Bagozzi, the company’s chief marketing officer. However, she also expects the digital app to generate excitement throughout the contest.
“It actually has broader appeal than people might think,” Bagozzi told the Kelly Cutrara Show on Wednesday. “People of all different ages and right across the country are using the digital technology.”
Bagozzi also acknowledged that the digital app allows Tim Hortons to learn more about customers’ habits, but she says that data will not be shared “in any way.”
“The idea is to be able to know what’s relevant to guests,” she said.
“Our small town restaurants serve a rural community, but our guests are just as digital as you would find in bigger cities around the country,” Tanya Doucette, a store owner in Rocky Mountain House, Alta., is quoted as saying in the Tim Hortons news release.
“About half our customers every day are using the Tims Rewards program and I know they will really like the improved chances of winning on the app and the weekly draws of $100,000.”
1:17 Coming soon to the breakfast table: Timbits cereal
Coming soon to the breakfast table: Timbits cereal
However, the push toward a mobile app might leave many technologically challenged Canadians behind — especially since the simple “roll up, tear and redeem” model will be a smaller part of the contest.
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Tim Hortons also appears to have slashed the value of the contest prizes by more than half. The total estimated retail value of all digital and cup prizes this year is $29.9 million, according to the 2020 contest rules. Last year’s total prize value was $71.3 million.
The contest still offers a boatload of gift cards, cars and other major prizes, but Tim Hortons appears to have lowered the odds for its most common prizes: free coffee and food. Last year’s odds were one in six. This year’s odds are one in nine.
The company saw its profits fall in the last quarter, and the new contest rules will clearly help it save millions of dollars in costs. It’s also trying to hold onto its Canadian roots despite being owned by a foreign corporation.
0:51 Justin Bieber rants about Tim Hortons cup lids
Justin Bieber rants about Tim Hortons cup lids
“We’re as Canadian as you get,” Doucette said at a news conference last month, where Tim Hortons tried to reassure Canadians that it’s still part of the country’s identity.
“We intend to start swinging back very hard everywhere that someone says that we’re not Canadian,” chief corporate officer Duncan Fulton added in a separate interview.
He might have some swinging to do once Canadians get wind of the new Roll Up the Rim rules.
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But hey, at least they’re giving people Timbits cereal, right?
HALIFAX – Chorus Aviation Inc. says its shareholders have voted to approve the sale of the company’s regional aircraft leasing business to HPS Investment Partners.
The Halifax-based company says the $1.9-billion deal was greenlighted by 98.1 per cent of votes cast by shareholders at a special meeting. The transaction needed approval by a two-thirds majority vote.
Chorus also says the waiting period mandated under U.S. legislation has expired and that it has received approval from Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
Chorus announced the sale of its plane leasing business to New York City-based HPS in July for $814 million in cash and $1.1 billion in aircraft debt to be assumed or prepaid by the buyers at closing.
The deal marked a one-eighty for Chorus, which bet big on aircraft leasing just two years earlier by buying London-based plane-leasing outfit Falko Regional Aircraft Ltd.
Chorus, which also provides regional service for Air Canada via Chorus subsidiary Jazz Aviation, says the sale remains subject to the other regulatory approvals and customary conditions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
TORONTO – AGF Management Ltd. says its net income attributable to equity owners totalled $20.3 million in its latest quarter, down from $23.0 million in the same quarter last year.
The investment manager says the profit amounted to 30 cents per diluted share for the quarter which ended on Aug. 31, down from 34 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
Total net revenue for the quarter amounted to $102.0 million, up from $84.0 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, AGF says it earned 37 cents per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 34 cents per diluted share a year ago.
The company says its total assets under management and fee-earning assets totalled $49.7 billion at Aug. 31, up from $42.3 billion a year earlier.
Kevin McCreadie, AGF’s chief executive and chief investment officer, says the company was pleased to see early signs of improvement with positive retail net flows complementing its solid investment performance amid an uncertain economic backdrop and significant market volatility.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
As of January 2024, Canada is home to more than 3,600 recreational cannabis retail shops and this number is increasing annually with a single store to every 10,000 Canadians. The retail sector has been facing multiple challenges and one is surely overabundance of stores within smaller communities. Too many retailers compared to users of cannabis. The use of cannabis has remained relatively the same, while multiple retailers and online sales forces are competing for this marketplace.
Failures within the retail field are not a surprise, as Tokyo Smoke closes its multiple stores, and most shops’ profit margins remain small and diminishing over time. Mass closures may happen within certain provinces such as Ontario where situations of multiple retailers are situated right beside a competitor. Massive amounts of revenue have been collected by provincial governments while these stores remain open to every possible financial flux possible.
The black market remains healthy and profitable. An excuse to legalize pot was to challenge illegal pot sales and make it difficult to sell this pot outside of legal means. 22% of Canadian pot smokers get their supply from the black market. They say the pot tastes better and is slightly less costly. Legal pot management is costly and this cost is passed onto the customer. With gummy sales growing, the cost of management by legal means is difficult and costly too.
It seems the government may need to rethink its policy regarding cannabis and the possibility of legalizing further types of illicit drugs in the future. A total ack of imagination exists within the policy network where old-fashioned prejudice towards addiction and the use of narcotics is seen as criminal and threatening to society. All the while the number of traffic stops due to drivers under the influence of narcotics continues to grow, and the use of drugs by the youthful generation continues to be a problem. A solution to our society’s problems will never come from present-day authorities.
