Ron Joyce - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Born and raised in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, Joyce enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and specialized in communications. Joyce later moved to Hamilton, Ontario and joined the Hamilton Police force in 1956. He served as a police officer until 1965. He established a Dairy Queen franchise in Hamilton and got to know the hockey player Tim Horton by frequenting his doughnut shop while on foot patrol.

Joyce entered a franchise partnership with Horton in 1967, and Joyce reportedly wrote "You must be kidding!" in reference to the clause of the one-page franchise agreement requiring rent in advance. After Horton's death in 1974, Joyce assumed control of the full Tim Horton franchise.

Joyce hired a management team and began to franchise the company throughout the late 1970s until the 1990s. During the early 1990s, Danny Murphy, a franchise owner of both Tim Hortons coffee shops and Wendy's fast food restaurants in Prince Edward Island wanted to combine both franchises under one roof in a new development in Montague. Murphy asked Joyce and Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas (1932–2002), to be present for the opening, which was reportedly the first time the business executives had met.

The Montague "combo store" concept eventually led to an informal partnership between Tim Hortons and Wendy's, and several years later Wendy's would merge the companies, in exchange for Joyce accepting Wendy's stock — Joyce thus became the largest single shareholder of Wendy's, even larger than Thomas himself.