Article content

TORONTO — A St. Louis-area Tim Hortons franchisee has closed two of his restaurants and blames the coffee chain’s new parent company for allegedly reneging on his original development deal and pushing him to open more than five times the number of restaurants than agreed to in the original deal.

Franchisee Eric Sigurdson says that he was forced to close two of his six Tim Hortons locations over the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend due to his ongoing legal battle with Restaurant Brands International Inc., operating in the U.S. as Tim Hortons USA, Inc.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Tim Hortons owner faces more franchisee ire — this time in form of a $50M lawsuit in the U.S. Back to video

Sigurdson is president of St. Louis-based Show Me Hospitality LLC, which filed a US$50-million lawsuit in Florida in July against Tim Hortons USA, alleging breach of contract.

Show Me had entered into a franchise agreement with Tim Hortons’ former owners in early 2014 to open 40 restaurants over five years. Before the first location in St. Louis had opened, Tim Hortons was acquired by Burger King and the two had merged to become Restaurant Brands International, controlled by the Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital.