Tim Hortons ex-CEO named business newsmaker of 2014

Tim Hortons’ former chief executive, Marc Caira, has been named the Canadian Press business newsmaker of the year.

Caira helped negotiate this year’s sale of the Hamilton-born coffee chain to Burger King – a deal worth $11 billion. The move raised questions about the future of the Tim Hortons brand.

Many have called out Burger King for taking advantage of tax benefits it receives by shifting some of its finances to Canada.

Caira’s other notable moves include ditching Cold Stone Creamery ice cream, and introducing dark roast coffee.

Marvin Ryder of the DeGroote School of Business calls Caira a good choice, considering the size of the deal. “It is the third largest food service operation in the world. It pits two iconic blends, Tim Hortons in Canada and Burger King in the United States merging together.”

But despite the merger, Ryder doesn’t expect many changes. “These two units will be run independently of each other. You are not going to see Whoppers in Tim Hortons and Timbits in Burger King.”

“Other people who would be worried is the staff. If you merge two large companies like this you don’t need two IT departments or accounting departments. There could be, could be some job losses in those. We expect to hear those in the first six months of 2015.”