A SLEW of Wendy’s restaurants in a US state have suddenly closed – just weeks after the fast food giant’s CEO announced there would be a raft of shutdowns.
Around a dozen restaurants in Michigan are said to have slammed shut in recent weeks.
Around a dozen Wendy’s restaurants have closed in Michigan[/caption]
Restaurants in cities such as Lansing and Novi have reportedly been pulled from the company’s website, as reported by MLive.
Chiefs did not release a list of the at-risk restaurants when the closures were announced in October.
Kirk Tanner revealed that a total of 140 restaurants would be going to the wall.
He said the locations which were going to close had underperformed.
“They’re just in locations that don’t build our brands,” Tanner told the Associated Press at the time.
“You look at a brand that’s 55 years old, and some of those restaurants are quite out of date.”
But Tanner said chiefs were not just closing restaurants in one area.
The closures were announced just months after bosses revealed 100 outlets would go to the wall.
However, the exec tried to present a positive vision for the iconic chain, which has been a staple of the fast-food scene for decades.
“Overall, Wendy’s system is incredibly healthy,” he said.
Tanner revealed the company is committed to expanding its portfolio.
“Our focus is on building new restaurants because we know they deliver well over the average of these poor-performing restaurants,” he said.
“We, overall, want the best restaurants for the customers and that customer experience we want to deliver.”
A representative told People that between 250 and 300 restaurants were slated to open this year.
US braces for ‘45,000 store closures’
Some 45,000 bricks-and-mortar stores could close in the next five years, experts have warned.
Several major retailers have announced store closures or gone out of business altogether in recent years.
Chains such as Foot Locker, Sally Beauty, Tuesday Morning, Shore City, Z Gallerie, and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams have all gone out of business.
Bed Bath & Beyond has closed all of its brick-and-mortar stores and is now an online-only retailer.
The most affected retailers have been clothing, consumer electronics, sporting goods, hobby, book, music, and home furnishing stores since the start of 2019.
UBS has predicted the total number of retail stores will drop by 45k from 958k to 913k.
Despite that, the report says that certain stores should thrive while others decline.
It said retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and Target, could be among the winners.
Wendy’s is not the only restaurant chain that has experienced closures.
Red Lobster bosses dramatically closed hundreds of its restaurants as the seafood chain fought for survival.
Bosses filed for bankruptcy in May, and chiefs scrambled to clear existing debt.
Earlier this year Denny’s chiefs unveiled plans to close 150 of its underperforming restaurants.
Execs revealed that 50 underperforming restaurants would close by the end of the year.
The closures are set to be completed by 2026.
