Tim Horton's Cuts Deal To Serve Wal-Mart Customers

Canadians might like to think they are different from Americans. But when it comes to eating out, Canadians are members of a fast-food nation just like their neighbor to the south.

And amid a host of quick-service chains operating in Canada, native player Tim Hortons (NYSE:THI) (TSX:THI) continues to outplay them all.

It might have something to do with the home-team advantage: Even McDonald's (MCD) scores as one of the runners-up, along with Dunkin' Donuts, Wendy's WEN, Subway and others.

"We're about $900 million in chain sales bigger than McDonald's (in Canada),"said Chief Financial Officer Cynthia Devine.

Tim Hortons will soon buck up against McDonald's in stores of another American institution that's growing north of the border: Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) WMT.

In a recently announced deal, Tim Hortons will open inside the main entrances of seven Canadian Wal-Mart Supercenters. That's a small number compared with McDonald's footprint in almost all of the nearly 300 Wal-Mart Canada stores, where it operates inside a separate food-service entrance.

But some analysts see the Tim Hortons deal with Wal-Mart as a good running start.