Justin Bieber’s Timbiebs collab fattens Tim Hortons’ wallet

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Tim Hortons has lots to sing about after its recent collaboration with pop star Justin Bieber led to “notable growth” for the coffee chain’s parent company, Restaurant Brands International.

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RBI reported Tuesday that sales jumped 10.3% in the fourth quarter of 2021, reversing an 11% decline for the same quarter a year ago.

Last fall, the London, Ont.-born singer joined forces with the chain for a line of Timbiebs Timbits — which came in Chocolate White Fudge, Sour Cream Chocolate and Birthday Cake Waffle flavours.

Bieber also launched wildly popular Timbiebs merchandise, including a beanie cap, a fannie pack and a tote bag.

The Timbiebs promotion “was one of the more successful traffic-driving initiatives in recent memory and outperformed our internal expectations,” said RBI CEO Jose Cil during an analyst call discussing the company’s financial results.

“You can expect to see more from this exciting partnership in the year ahead,” Cil added.

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“What’s amazing about working with Justin is he has an authentic, lifelong relationship with Tims and he was so invested in working on Timbiebs and our future plans together,” the chain’s chief marketing officer, Hope Bagozzi, said in a statement last year.

In announcing the collaboration, Bieber said the partnership fulfilled “a dream of mine.”

“I grew up on Tim Hortons and it’s always been something close to my heart,” Bieber said in a statement.

The seeds of the collaboration were planted in late 2019 when Bieber ignited a debate on social media about the company’s redesigned lids.

Bieber posted a poll to his Instagram page of an old Tim Hortons cup with the question: “Who’s Canadian and misses these lids at Tim Hortons like I do?” According to his post, 70% of Canadians agreed that the old Tim Hortons cups were better.

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Bosses at the chain responded to Bieber, thanking him for his feedback as they insisted they were working to improve the quality of the new lids.

“Sorry you aren’t loving our new lids, but the good news is that they’re made with 100% recyclable plastic,” they wrote. “We’d love to have you join our team that’s working to make them even better! DM us.”

Bieber replied, writing: “We’re making a change one lid at a time. Thanks @timhortons.”

On social media, fans called the partnership the “greatest collab in history.”

“Finally we have my dream collab between my first love (Justin) and my first coffee love (Tims) yayyy,” one person wrote.”

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