Less than Year After Opening, Tim Hortons Closes Store

LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio – The newly open Tim Hortons restaurant at 3523 Belmont Ave. has closed, just nine months after its well publicized grand opening.

The franchise operator, TH Cleveland, announced the closing yesterday on its Facebook page. TH is a Beachwood-based developer established in 2017 to oversee the building, operations and marketing of Tim Hortons restaurants in northeastern Ohio.

“Today is the last day of operations for the Tim Hortons Belmont Avenue restaurant,” the post stated. “We want to thank our loyal guests who have supported the Belmont location, and we invite you to visit us at our nearby Girard restaurant, located at 400 S. State Street in Girard. Please be assured Tim Hortons remains committed to growing the Tim Hortons brand in northeast Ohio.”

Comments on the Facebook page complain about slow service and a failure to hire sufficient staff to operate the restaurant.

When the restaurant opened last March, the CEO of TH, Jeff Linville, reported ground would soon be broken for the site in Girard and then a third store in Austintown, which was not built.

“We’ve got about another six that we’re going to open throughout the area. I can’t divulge anything but by the end of the year we should have seven in the area,” Linville said. “This is just one of many.”

Tim Hortons is Canada’s largest restaurant chain and is an operating unit of Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International. Third-quarter results released by RBI reported same-store sales dropped 1.4% at Tim Hortons, which the company attributed to slow sales in its cold beverage and sandwich categories.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.