Final preparations underway as Tim Hortons gets set for grand opening in Washington

The doors and drive-thru at Tim Hortons, based at the former Frankie & Benny’s site in Washington, will open to the public at 7am on Monday.

As a special prize, the first customer in the drive-thru and the first one at the front door will win a year of free coffee – valued by the company at around £3,000.

The Canadian coffee chain plans to open a second site in Boldon later this year.

Ahead of the Washington opening, customers have been told to expect an authentic Tim Hortons experience, with classics such including their iconic French Vanilla coffee and the small doughnut balls known as Timbits among the items on offer.

On Sunday, August 8 – the evening before opening – barriers could be seen set up in the car park to help customers as they head for the drive-thru.

For a limited time, Tim Hortons is also set to run a breakfast deal, where customers can get a breakfast main, hash brown and a drink for only £1.99.

Plans to open the Washington site were submitted to Sunderland City Council last year and construction work at the site finally started in May.

Kevin Hydes, the Chief Commercial Officer for Tim Hortons, told the Echo that feedback from the general public ahead of the site opening in Washington has been overwhelmingly positive.

He said: "We’ve got published ambitions to be in every major town and city in the UK by the end of 2022 and we’re well on track to achieve that.

"I think it is critical that we have representation in the North East, this is the first one but we’ve got many more in our pipe line and we hope to bring a number of restaurants to the region over the course of the next 18 months.

"Whenever we decide to come to a new town or city, it is typically a relatively long process just to make sure that we’ve got the right location so what we’ve been pleased with is that whenever we make announcements about Washington, the consumer response has been phenomenal.”

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