A major expansion of home delivery is helping Tim Hortons slowly inch its way out of a months-long sales slump. Tim Hortons’ parent Restaurant Brands International Inc. on Thursday reported that the coffee chain’s comparable sales are now showing declines of around 25 per cent, an improvement on the early days of the pandemic. The focus on “comparable sales” is common for major retail chains since the metric excludes newly opened stores to make for a clearer year-over-year comparison. Tim Hortons’ comparable sales were already in decline in recent, pre-pandemic quarters, but they sank even further in late March, hovering around “the negative mid-forties.” In April, comparable sales dropped in the 30-per-cent range, and Thursday’s update from RBI showed more progress, with declines now trending in the “negative mid-twenties” as of the third week in May. – Source: Financial Post, Canada.