Tim Hortons starting to see declining in-store traffic

It looks like there really is a limit to how much coffee and doughnuts the Canadian populace can take: shares of Tim Hortons Inc. have been downgraded from “neutral” to “sell” today by a Goldman Sachs analyst over concerns that declining restaurant traffic could be an early indicator that the Canadian market is getting saturated. The loss of traffic was apparently offset somewhat by higher average prices, perhaps a result of the changes it made earlier this year in cup sizing. To move back into a favourable position, according to Goldman, the company would need to accelerate expansion in non-Canadian markets, grow in new areas (such as single-cup servings like Keurig’s K-cups), improve same-store sales and appoint a new CEO already. [Financial Post]