Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Absolutely, sir. Ladies and gentlemen we’ll now proceed to the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Irene Nattel. Please proceed with your question.
Irene Nattel – RBC Capital Markets
Thanks and good morning everyone. First question is really around Canada, at the end of Q2 or when you release your Q2 results you still expressed confidence in your ability to generate that 3% to 5% target for same-store sales growth. And I'm just wondering, what has changed since that time or what didn’t happen that you thought might happen to get you to that level and the second part of this question is just a point of clarification, Don. You mentioned something about funding exclusive arrangement with Cold Stone in Canada, and I'm just wondering whether that – we should interrupt that to you and then you could possibly open Cold Stone only branded units in Canada?
Donald B. Schroeder
Okay. First of all, with respect to your first question around the 3% to 5% growth for this year and in fact that we think we'll probably in the low-end or may be mix up slightly. I think the real reason for that is just as I said with respect to the economy everyone projected by the third quarter of this year that we will probably see some real recovery. There is some in some parts of the country. But at best it's sluggish to date and therefore given those economic challenges I just want to put everyone on notice. I want to be conservative here and where we think we'll probably come out at the end of the year.
Irene Nattel – RBC Capital Markets
And then just on the Cold Stone, Don if you could clarify please?
Donald B. Schroeder
The Cold Stone, again given the test results that we've experienced in the U.S. and in Canada we are very optimistic about what that offers to us in both countries. And that's why we thought that it was important to get control of the situation in Canada by having this exclusive arrangement. Now we have complete flexibility in terms of how we will develop it. As you say conceivably we could open Cold Stone on their own I can tell you that it's not in the plans. At this point in time what we are really concerned about doing at this point is just continuing on with the test, we have a lot to learn with respect to the impact of the Cold Stone operation on our business both here and in Canada. So we're working with our store owners and the initial test I can tell you that we will look to expand that test in Canada together with our storeowners. Again with a view to learning more about it, we've already learned that, you know we can't sell Cold Stone through the drive through. But the real question is and before we would move forward as we want to know, is this something that can enhance the overall performance of our Tim Hortons here in Canada and make sure that it doesn't negatively impact their core business. So again we'll work closely with our storeowners trying to answer those questions over this winter and throughout next year.
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