What was the impact of noncore income streams on the EBITDA growth in the fourth quarter of 2020
closer to our systemwide sales growth. However, in 2020, we saw increased volatility related to the impacts of the pandemic as well as the steps we've taken to reinforce our plans by investing behind our people. More specifically, in the fourth quarter, there were several factors that contributed to the difference in our consolidated growth rates.
First, our year-over-year performance across all three brands reflected proactive G&A investments in our digital and technology initiatives as well as adding strong new hires in key areas of the business like marketing, field operations and technology. As we've discussed, building out best-in-class technology assets is a top strategic priority, which we believe will unlock exciting new avenues for growth over time. Together, these investments, combined with some year-over-year timing shifts in G&A, affected our growth rate by about negative 3% in the fourth quarter.
Looking ahead, we expect to continue investing across these key areas of our business in 2021, including the important technology initiatives Josh just mentioned. And while there were some timing impacts in Q4 that will roll off, we think that overall, the annualized level for the quarter is fairly representative of capturing the investments we plan to make this year.
Second, beyond the year-over-year sales decline, there were a few other moving pieces in our supply chain results that impacted our EBITDA growth by approximately negative 2% in the quarter. In addition to some normal fluctuations in product mix and commodities, our operating costs were higher in the quarter as we work through the final go-live transition of our distribution center project and continued to see some effects of fixed cost deleveraging, though to a lesser extent than in Q3.
Additionally, there were a few benefits from the fourth quarter of 2019 that we lapped, including our fresh brewer rollout and the timing of certain vendor discounts. Overall, these effects resulted in a slightly lower margin for the quarter. However, we expect that as the business improves and return to historical volume levels, our margins will start to recover as well.
Third, we saw a year-over-year decline in EBITDA of about negative 2% related to noncore income streams that have also been displaced by the pandemic, including our decision with our partners to pause cash dividends from our joint ventures, which have historically been concentrated in the fourth quarter as we focus our efforts on reinvesting for growth. In addition, there were also some market-specific challenges that caused a small year-over-year decline in our income from company-operated stores.
And finally, ad fund expenses exceeded revenues by approximately $6 million more than they did in the fourth quarter of last year, resulting in an impact of approximately negative 1% to our EBITDA growth. As we've mentioned in the past, there may be mismatches from quarter-to-quarter based on marketing calendars, timing of activations and trends in the underlying business. The remainder of the gap between our systemwide sales growth and adjusted EBITDA growth primarily stemmed from the shift in sales mix that we saw across brands, similar to last quarter, reflecting a more pronounced decline in sales at Tims, where in addition to franchise royalties, we also generate EBITDA from property and supply chain activities.
Moving on to segment level performance. At Tim Hortons, fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $229 million, which represents a decrease of approximately 24% on an organic basis. This decrease was driven by a decline of approximately 13% in systemwide sales, which included an 11% decrease in global comparable sales and the continued effects of COVID-related temporary closures, which impacted about 7% of restaurants over the quarter, as well as the supply chain impacts I just mentioned. At Burger King, fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $218 million, representing a year-over-year organic decrease of approximately 18%, driven primarily by a decrease of nearly 8% in systemwide sales.
The change in syst
closer to our systemwide sales growth. However, in 2020, we saw increased volatility related to the impacts of the pandemic as well as the steps we've taken to reinforce our plans by investing behind our people. More specifically, in the fourth quarter, there were several factors that contributed to the difference in our consolidated growth rates.
First, our year-over-year performance across all three brands reflected proactive G&A investments in our digital and technology initiatives as well as adding strong new hires in key areas of the business like marketing, field operations and technology. As we've discussed, building out best-in-class technology assets is a top strategic priority, which we believe will unlock exciting new avenues for growth over time. Together, these investments, combined with some year-over-year timing shifts in G&A, affected our growth rate by about negative 3% in the fourth quarter.
Looking ahead, we expect to continue investing across these key areas of our business in 2021, including the important technology initiatives Josh just mentioned. And while there were some timing impacts in Q4 that will roll off, we think that overall, the annualized level for the quarter is fairly representative of capturing the investments we plan to make this year.
Second, beyond the year-over-year sales decline, there were a few other moving pieces in our supply chain results that impacted our EBITDA growth by approximately negative 2% in the quarter. In addition to some normal fluctuations in product mix and commodities, our operating costs were higher in the quarter as we work through the final go-live transition of our distribution center project and continued to see some effects of fixed cost deleveraging, though to a lesser extent than in Q3.
Additionally, there were a few benefits from the fourth quarter of 2019 that we lapped, including our fresh brewer rollout and the timing of certain vendor discounts. Overall, these effects resulted in a slightly lower margin for the quarter. However, we expect that as the business improves and return to historical volume levels, our margins will start to recover as well.
Third, we saw a year-over-year decline in EBITDA of about negative 2% related to noncore income streams that have also been displaced by the pandemic, including our decision with our partners to pause cash dividends from our joint ventures, which have historically been concentrated in the fourth quarter as we focus our efforts on reinvesting for growth. In addition, there were also some market-specific challenges that caused a small year-over-year decline in our income from company-operated stores.
 And finally, ad fund expenses exceeded revenues by approximately $6 million more than they did in the fourth quarter of last year, resulting in an impact of approximately negative 1% to our EBITDA growth. As we've mentioned in the past, there may be mismatches from quarter-to-quarter based on marketing calendars, timing of activations and trends in the underlying business. The remainder of the gap between our systemwide sales growth and adjusted EBITDA growth primarily stemmed from the shift in sales mix that we saw across brands, similar to last quarter, reflecting a more pronounced decline in sales at Tims, where in addition to franchise royalties, we also generate EBITDA from property and supply chain activities.
Moving on to segment level performance. At Tim Hortons, fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $229 million, which represents a decrease of approximately 24% on an organic basis. This decrease was driven by a decline of approximately 13% in systemwide sales, which included an 11% decrease in global comparable sales and the continued effects of COVID-related temporary closures, which impacted about 7% of restaurants over the quarter, as well as the supply chain impacts I just mentioned. At Burger King, fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $218 million, representing a year-over-year organic decrease of approximately 18%, driven primarily by a decrease of nearly 8% in systemwide sales.
The change in syst