LOS ANGELES, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Coffee and doughnut shop Tim Hortons Inc THI.TO and ice cream shop Cold Stone Creamery announced plans on Friday to test a combination of their brands in a total of 100 stores in the United States in a bid to boost traffic.
Fifty stores from each brand will be involved in the test, which will focus on existing restaurants in Michigan, western New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Maine and Connecticut. Tim Hortons test shops will add a section that sells Cold Stone ice cream and Cold Stone stores will add Tim Hortons menu items.
Cold Stone gets most of its traffic and sales in the evening while Tim Hortons’ main business is breakfast and lunch, said Lee Knowlton, chief operating officer of Kahala Corp, Cold Stone’s parent.
“We have it covered from breakfast to after-dinner treats,” Knowlton said.
Tim Hortons has roughly 3,300 restaurants in Canada and the Northeast United States. Cold Stone Creamery has more than 1,450 shops in 11 countries. (Reporting by Lisa Baertlein, editing by Matthew Lewis)
Tim Hortons, a popular Canadian express coffee and doughnut chain, has announced that they will be co-branding with another popular chain, Cold Stone Creamery, an American ice cream parlor chain.

The deal includes a total of 100 new stores, at CA$121,690 (US$100,000) each.  Each company will have 50 stores that they will build as, or convert into, dual-operation franchises.  Each of the 50 stores will offer menus from each company and be located in 7 states, mostly in the Northeastern U.S.. 

Executives at Tim Hortons believe that mixing the two together is perfect because Tim Hortons makes most of their profit in the morning, while the Creameries are more popular in the evening. The idea proved successful when tested for three months in Rhode Island, in two different stores.

"We're very excited about the complementary daypart piece. It's something unique in what we see from a co-branding perspective," said Tim Hortons chief of operations, David Clanachan. Construction has already started and stores are expected to open in May.

Tim Hortons was founded by Canadian ice hockey player Tim Horton. The first store opened in Hamilton, Ontario in 1964. In July of 2007, there were over 2,700 locations in Canada and 500 in the U.S.. Cold Stone Creamery was founded in 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona. There are over 1,400 operation, in locations such as Japan, South Korea and the U.S..