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Now that 3G Capital’s Burger King Worldwide Inc. has struck a deal to buy doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc., the Canadian company can expect to get lean. Really lean.

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‘Americans are so chauvinistic. They tend to think, Oh, an American company bought or is merging with a smaller Canadian company. The reverse is true here’





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Brazilian private-equity firm 3G insists that executives at its businesses follow the investment group’s parsimonious practices. If its management of Burger King and HJ Heinz Co. is a guide, Tim Hortons will see jobs cut, offices made more Spartan and posh corporate travel disappear.

The hard-nosed strategy has delivered results. Since acquiring Burger King in 2010, 3G’s team has tripled the company’s profit margin to 61%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, thanks to cost-cutting and selling stores to franchisees. 3G’s latest deal will create the world’s third-largest fast-food chain by merging with Canada’s biggest seller of coffee and doughnuts.