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The Homestyle Biscuit at Tim Hortons is vegan. This is worth mentioning, if only because Tim Hortons never mentions it.

Any other restaurant chain would consider it something of an asset, having one of the central items on its menu be vegan-certified. But at Tim Hortons having something vegan isn’t an asset. It’s a liability. Tim Hortons is one of the only brands in the world whose appeal among its major consumer base is precisely its lack of worldliness or sophistication — whose brand identity is so down-to-earth, unfussy and defiantly provincial that even the vaguest suggestion of the cosmopolitan is enough, it’s feared, to drive away regulars.

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Tim Hortons owes its success in Canada to having defined itself clearly in the popular imagination. But that idea has proved inflexible — and that inflexibility seems like it might be bad for business.

Sales at Tim Hortons fell 1.4 per cent in the last quarter, though the revenues of its parent company, Restaurant Brands International Inc., are actually up overall, thanks to strong showings from Popeyes and Burger King. At first glance, the problem appears simple: Tim Hortons simply isn’t cool, in the sense that (probably bafflingly to RBI) Popeye’s has been over the last few years. Further, the Tim Hortons demographic isn’t getting any younger. And the company can’t appeal to a youthful, savvier demographic without making serious, high-level changes — the kind of changes that might seriously alienate what diehard consumers they have left.