By Scott Anderson
TORONTO (Reuters) - Tim Hortons
The company, which last month completed plans to reorganize as a Canadian public company to take advantage of a better tax rate, said earnings fell to C$61.2 million ($57.2 million), or 34 Canadian cents a share, from C$78.8 million, or 43 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose 10.7 percent to C$563.6 million. Analysts on average were expecting C$552.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company said sales at locations open for more than a year rose 3.1 percent in its Canadian stores and increased 4.3 percent in the United States.
"I was a little bit surprised by same-store sales accelerating in Canada, and even the one in the U.S. is pretty impressive considering the environment that we are in," said analyst Brian Yarbrough of Edward Jones in St. Louis. "So I think they are benefiting from people trading down."
The company also said it expected 2009 Canadian same-store sales to come in at the low end or slightly below its target of 3 percent to 5 percent growth.
But Yarbrough said the company was taking a conservative approach, given that second-quarter Canadian same-store sales had risen just 1.7 percent, down from 5.7 percent growth a year earlier.
Separately, Tim Hortons said it planned to buy back up to C$150 million of its shares by March. The shares, which at Thursday's close had slipped almost 10 percent this year, were down 4 Canadian cents at C$31.75 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
($1=$1.07 Canadian)
(Reporting by Scott Anderson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
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