If you've made the trip to or from Sudbury along MR 35, chances are you've made a stop at Tim Hortons in Azilda on the way.
That Tim Hortons location can now lay claim to the title of the No. 2-rated Tim Hortons in North America after two employees returned home from the annual Tim Cup Challenge in Las Vegas earlier this month.
This was the first time that a Northern Ontario Tim Hortons has been represented at the competition that starts out with 6,000 different locations vying for top spot in North America.
District managers travel to different Tims locations and grade them on things such as speed of service, accuracy of orders and friendliness. When the rankings came through in the initial qualifying, the Azilda location made the top three in Northern Ontario.
More than that, the location's owner, Randy Annett, was twice represented in the top three in the region, as his Chelmsford location was also selected to take part in the provincial competition.
"We had teams from both locations go to the qualifications to get to Vegas," said Annett. "It was our Azilda location and I believe a Tim Hortons from the Oshawa area that were both selected to go to Vegas."
The lucky two employees that got to head down to Las Vegas to take on 11 other teams from around Canada and the United States were Amanda Riebel and Alyssa Seguin. The pair have been working at Tim Hortons for four years and three years respectively, and went into the Tim Cup Challenge finals not knowing what to expect.
"It was really overwhelming," said Riebel. "There were a lot more people there for the competition than we expected."
There was no big secret to the duo's success, as Seguin says that working alongside Riebel for the past three years, the two have developed a solid chemistry.
"I think it's the way we work," said Seguin. "We can almost do it without talking to each other — we both work the same way and at the same speed."
The two lend a lot of credit to their success to the Annetts, Randy and Kelly, who own three Tims locations in Greater Sudbury (Azilda, Chelmsford, Dowling).
"They're all really well-run stores, the staff at all of them are very well-trained, and that's credit to Randy and Kelly," said Riebel.
For their efforts, the girls brought home medals and have gained a bit of celebrity status among their co-workers.
"Everyone is really happy for us," said Riebel. "They're all really proud of how well we did."
"We went there thinking we'd be happy with 11th place (out of 12)," said Seguin with a laugh.
On top of their medals, celebrity status, and bringing accolades home for the Azilda Tim Hortons, the pair each received $3,000 in prize money.
While the two say (through grins) that the money will likely go to Christmas shopping, boss man Randy knows his employees quite well and shared a little tidbit.
"I'm not going to say who, but I think one of them may or may not have bought a new purse with the money while they were in Vegas," said Annett.
"Overall we're just very proud of these girls and how well they did as the first Tim Hortons employees from Northern Ontario to get this far."
