Editing Tim Hortons (section)

===1990–2002: Name change and growth===
[[File:Tim Hortons logo (original).svg|thumb|Tim Hortons logo as used in the mid-1990s]]
The company had originally been incorporated as Tim Donut Limited.<ref name=charade>{{cite web | url = http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090813.OBCHARADE13ART2152/BDAStory/BDA/deaths/?pageRequested=all | title = The 'idea guy' behind Tim Hortons saw others get rich while he went bankrupt: Entrepreneur was the ill-fated hockey player's first partner in the little donut chain that grew | first = Danny | last = Gallagher | work = The Globe and Mail | location = Canada | date = August 13, 2009 | access-date = December 16, 2010 | archive-date = October 8, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181008055154/http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090813.OBCHARADE13ART2152/BDAStory/BDA/deaths/?pageRequested=all | url-status = dead }}</ref> By the 1990s, the company name had changed to The TDL Group Ltd. This was an effort by the company to diversify the business, removing the primary emphasis on donuts, and continuing the expansion of the menu options as consumer tastes broadened.<ref name="The Story of Tim Hortons"/>

Some older locations retain signage with the company's name, including a possessive apostrophe, despite the fact that the official styling of the company's name has been Tim Hortons without an apostrophe for at least a decade.<ref>{{cite news | last = Dickinson | first = Casey | title = Canadian Doughnut Shop Targets Upstate | work=CNY Business Journal | date = November 24, 2000 | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3718/is_200011/ai_n8927439/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318230325/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3718/is_200011/ai_n8927439/|archive-date=18 March 2006}}</ref> The company had removed the apostrophe after signs using the apostrophe was interpreted by some to be breaking the [[Charter of the French Language#Commerce and business|language sign laws]] of the province of Quebec in 1993.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ressources/bibliotheque/depliants/20130513_depliant5d.pdf | title=French language Commerce laws | website=oqlf | access-date=2020-01-29 | archive-date=October 30, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030141214/https://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ressources/bibliotheque/depliants/20130513_depliant5d.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> The removal of the apostrophe allowed the company to have one common sign image across Canada.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wkyc.com/article/life/food/to-apostrophe-or-not-apostrophe-why-is-tim-hortons-not-tim-hortons/95-485466886|title=To apostrophe or not apostrophe? Why is Tim Hortons not Tim Horton's?|website=WKYC|date=October 23, 2017 |access-date=2019-03-06}}</ref>

Although a number of Quebec locations have bilingual menu boards, the decision to have both Canadian official languages represented is left to the discretion of individual franchise owners. Some Quebec locations have French-only menu boards. It is the strong recommendation to all the Quebec restaurants from the TDL Group Corporation that they post menu boards in both English and French in accordance with the standards being enforced by the ''[[Office québécois de la langue française]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://quebecitie.blogspot.com/2014/10/tim-hortons-bilingual-service-or-not.html|title=QuebeCitie: Tim Hortons: Bilingual signage? Or not.|date=April 15, 2019}}</ref>

====Merger with Wendy's====
[[File:MarkhamTimHortons3.jpg|thumb|right|A Tim Hortons/Wendy's joint restaurant in [[Markham, Ontario]]]]
In 1992, the owner of all Tim Hortons and [[Wendy's]] restaurants in [[Prince Edward Island]], Daniel P. Murphy, decided to open new franchise outlets for both brands in the same building in the town of Montague. Murphy invited Joyce and Wendy's chairman [[Dave Thomas (American businessman)|Dave Thomas]] to the grand opening of the "combo store," where the two executives met for the first time. Murphy's success with combining coffee and donuts with Wendy's fast food led to the August 8, 1995 acquisition of and merger with TDL Group by [[The Wendy's Company|Wendy's International, Inc]]., an American company; this lasted until 2009.<ref>{{Cite video | url = http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-2330-13539-10/on_this_day/politics_economy/twt |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation | title = US burger giant buys Tim Hortons doughnut chain | date=August 10, 1995}}</ref>

The sale was widely commented on in the media. In 1995, the ''[[Toronto Star]]'' had a column reflecting on Tim Hortons "selling out" to Wendy's with "the spectacle of another great Canadian icon...gone to Yankee burgerfat".<ref>Susan Kastner [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/21226435.html?dids=21226435:21226435&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+13%2C+1995&author=By+Susan+Kastner+Toronto+Star&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=Simple+fairytale+takes+on+whole+new+meaning&pqatl=google Simple fairytale takes on whole new meaning]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023191808/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/21226435.html?dids=21226435%3A21226435&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS%3AFT&type=current&date=Aug%2013%2C%201995&author=By%20Susan%20Kastner%20Toronto%20Star&pub=Toronto%20Star&desc=Simple%20fairytale%20takes%20on%20whole%20new%20meaning&pqatl=google |date=October 23, 2012 }} [Final Edition] August 13, 1995, page E.2 Section: PEOPLE Toronto Star</ref>