Written By Lexx Thornton
The fast-food chain Wendy’s has announced plans for a significant number of restaurant closures, just one year after already shuttering 140 locations.
During a quarterly earnings call on Friday, Interim CEO Ken Cook told investors the company plans to close a “mid single-digit percentage” of its approximately 6,000 stores nationwide. This move is projected to result in the closure of between 240 and 360 restaurants, with the company aiming for about 300 locations to be addressed.
The decision is driven by a need to improve the overall health of the brand. Cook stated that the goal is to eliminate restaurants that “do not elevate the brand and are a drag from a franchisee’s financial performance perspective.”
The company plans to deal with these underperforming locations in several ways: some will receive improvements to technology or equipment, others will be transferred to new operators, but a significant portion will be closed altogether.
The closures are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, though a list of specific locations has not yet been announced. The aggressive restructuring comes as Wendy’s struggles with sales, reporting a 4.7% decrease in same-store sales and a 2.6% loss in global systemwide sales for the third quarter.
