27th August, 2026
The GCC Is Open for Business: What Tim Hortons | GCC supply chain head Told Us About Sourcing, Shipping and Survival in 2026
Head of supply Chain GCC, Tim Hortons
A special edition of Market Pulse, brought to you by the Middle East Organic and Natural Products Expo Dubai and the Natural World Expo Saudi Arabia
Supply chains in the GCC have stopped being a back-office concern. Between Red Sea disruptions, congestion at Gulf ports, and volatility around the Strait of Hormuz, sourcing and logistics have become boardroom-level, and in some cases national-security-level, decisions.
Razik, Tim Hortons: “Transparency is the key, from negotiation to the end user”
Razik manages supply chain for 350 GCC stores, importing from the Americas, China, Europe and Malaysia — with one hard constraint: Tim Hortons’ coffee beans come exclusively from its own US-based roasteries, leaving no alternative sourcing option for that single most important product.
On supplier relationships: The disruption pushed Tim Hortons to explore regional roasting partnerships for the first time — not because relationships with existing suppliers soured, but because delivery reliability, not cost or loyalty, became the deciding factor. Razik was clear that this diversification wasn’t driven by wanting to cut costs or switch brands; it was force majeure. Existing suppliers understood the constraints and, in several cases, actively helped by connecting Tim Hortons with regional partners who could supply similar products temporarily — with the expectation that business would return to the original supplier once conditions stabilized.
On stock and demand planning: With lead times unpredictable, Razik’s team builds in a 30–35% buffer on every shipment, based on historical performance rather than supplier promises. The bigger ask of suppliers: transparency about raw material availability and pricing pressure. Managing a fast-moving-goods, shelf-life-sensitive business means constantly balancing enough stock to avoid stockouts against too much stock that risks selling at a discount as expiry approaches — a balance Razik says has become significantly harder to strike.
On emergency sourcing — the standout story of the session: Razik shared a concrete case study. Tim Hortons began developing a European (Netherlands) donut supplier back in 2022 as a hedge against its Canada-based source, which took roughly a year to come online. A second backup factory in Oman started production in January 2026 — just one month before the latest wave of disruption hit. Because that shift had already happened, one of the company’s main SKUs experienced zero turbulence. The Netherlands facility, meanwhile, is kept active with quarterly orders purely to preserve the relationship as a standing backup. The lesson: diversification investments made years in advance are what actually protect you when a crisis hits — not last-minute scrambling.
On protecting margins: Razik’s ask of exporters is direct — full transparency on cost build-up. He was clear that current conditions are not a license for suppliers to raise prices unchecked: doing so might yield short-term gains, but it costs the relationship permanently once the market stabilizes. Suppliers who operate on an “open book” basis — sharing their real cost pressures and working through them jointly — are the ones who come out of this period with stronger, higher-volume relationships. Those who exploited scarcity or near-monopoly positions to overprice, he said, will be quietly phased out once alternatives are qualified.
Closing takeaway — two priorities:
- Diversification — always have a Plan B, C and D among suppliers and manufacturing locations, without compromising on quality.
- Regional capacity — the GCC has significant untapped manufacturing and R&D potential. Leaning into local suppliers reduces inventory exposure and cash tied up in long-haul shipping, while keeping global supplier relationships intact as a complement, not a replacement.