Timothy's World Coffee

Timothy's World Coffee (a.k.a. Timothy's) is a large Canadian chain of coffeeshops.

Origin and background

Timothy's was founded in 1975 as a retailer of premium roasted coffee beans by Timothy Snelgrove and his wife Teresa Snelgrove. The company was originated as a business-school project Snelgrove undertook while studying at the University of Western Ontario. As the company expanded, it evolved its retail offering to include brewed coffee.

Timothy's was purchased by Ian and Becky McKinnon in 1986 who further expanded retail locations and created a wholesale coffee division. Timothy's also became a roaster partner of Keurig and began producing single serve K-Cups for use in Keurig's line of single serve brewers.

In 2008, Timothy's became an affiliated portfolio company of Sun Capital Partners.

On November 13, 2009, it was announced that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. would acquire Timothy's wholesale business, while Bruegger's Enterprises, Inc. would purchase and continue to operate the retail business. Bruegger's would also acquire Timothy's partner restaurants, mmmuffins and Michel's Baguette, through a wholly owned subsidiary called ThreeCaf Brands Canada Inc.