TONY RICCIUTO
Local News - Saturday, November 25, 2006 @ 02:00
Taxpayers aren't getting creamed after all for the cost to open a Tim Hortons outlet in Afghanistan, where Canadian soldiers are serving.
Canadians will not be stuck paying millions of dollars a year for troops to enjoy a cup of Tim Hortons coffee while serving in Afghanistan.
A recent news report stated it cost Canadian taxpayers close to $4 million to set up a Tim Hortons outlet in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan. The report added it will continue to cost about $5 million each year.
In interviews, however, officials at Tim Hortons head office in Oakville and the Department of National Defence in Ottawa say the report was wrong. They said startup costs and future expenses should be covered by profits earned by the Afghanistan outlet.
"It has been very confusing, because it was incorrectly reported," said Nick Javor, senior vice-president of corporate affairs for Tim Hortons.
The news item that originated with CanWest News Service, he added, also aired on Global National TV.
The Afghanistan venture was not a normal business transaction, Javor said.
Rather than Tim Hortons contacting the military about opening an outlet in Kandahar, it was the soldiers who made it known to their superiors they would like to have a Tim Hortons outlet.
"They wanted a taste of home, they were homesick. It was a morale builder, because at the end of the day they want to have their Timmy," said Javor.
A high-ranking general contacted the president of Tim Hortons to see if it was possible. Key people from the company were called in to make it happen.
Javor said in the past, the company has been supportive of the men and women who serve in the armed forces. Every Christmas, cans of coffee are shipped wherever Canadian soldiers are serving. Over the past five years, Tim Hortons has sent more than 30,000 cans of coffee, usually with little or no publicity.
In this case, Tim Hortons waived the $450,000 franchise fee, future royalty fees, sold the two sales trailers to the Canadian military at cost and supplied technical staff, volunteers and others to help with training.
Javor said financial figures mentioned in news reports were incorrect, because they were taken from a report that contained estimated costs for the project - not actual costs.
For example, CanWest reported the total cost for the first year of operations at Tim Hortons' Kandahar franchise was more than $3.9 million.
Karen Johnstone, spokeswoman for National Defence in Ottawa, said the incremental cost for the first 12 months was an estimated $1.16 million. That included $200,000 to hook up the trailers and $80,000 per month for employee wages and utilities.
"The costs reported by Global National are incorrect," said Johnstone. "Those costs came from an initial estimate that differ from the actual costs."
The Tim Hortons outlet in Kandahar, run by the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency, serves 2,300 Canadian troops and 5,000 personnel from other countries. It is located on a boardwalk along with several American concessions. Their gross profit is $5,000 a day.
As with any business, said Javor, there are startup costs, but those will be repaid from the profit that is generated.
Johnstone said net profits will be used for a number of things, including paying back the cost of the unit and investing in morale and welfare programs for soldiers and their families.
"It was never intended by either side for it to be a commercial venture," said Johnstone.
Tom Newell, who owns the Tim Hortons outlets in Chippawa and on McLeod Road, said there's a Niagara Falls connection to this story. "The trailer we had here when he had the renovation done on McLeod Road is one of the trailers that was sent over to Afghanistan."
Newell felt the initial coverage made Tim Hortons look like it was "very greedy and profiting off our boys in Afghanistan, and it was really quite the opposite.
"They had requested it because they were missing a taste of home."
The trailer that's in Afghanistan now was at McLeod Road for about six weeks while renovations were underway.
"The renovation was done in February and the trailer sat in the cold ice and snow, and now it's sitting in the heat and sand," Newell said.
tricciuto@nfreview.com