OTTAWA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Ron Joyce, the co-founder of the Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut chain, died peacefully at the age of 88 in his home in Burlington, Canada on Thursday with family at his side, according to CTV Friday.

Through hard work, determination and drive, Joyce built one of the most successful restaurant chains in Canada with the other co-founder Tim Horton.

Joyce left home when he was 15 and moved to Hamilton, Canada. He served in the navy and later became a police officer before getting into the coffee shop business.

Tim Horton opened his first store in Hamilton in 1964. When he decided to expand, he chose Joyce as the first franchisee.

After Horton died in a car crash in 1974, Joyce took full control of the business and oversaw its growth into a billion-dollar business. There are now more than 4,500 Tim Hortons restaurants worldwide, including 3,600 in Canada.

In 1996, Joyce sold the business to Wendy's International in a deal worth 400 million U.S. dollar. In 2014, Tim Hortons was bought by another U.S. fast food giant, Burger King, for 12 billion U.S. dollars.

In July 2018, Tim Hortons announced its plan to take advantage of a growing Chinese appetite for North American fast food to open more than 1,500 of its coffee-and-doughnut shops in China over the next decade from the year 2019.