Wendy’s announced its plan to close 140 locations in the United States.

The closures are in addition to the 100 locations the fast food chain said it would close earlier this year.

However, Wendy’s intends to offset the closures by opening 250 to 300 new locations.

“We want to further improve our restaurant footprint and overall system health,” Wendy’s president and CEO Kirk Tanner said, according to TODAY.

“Following this review, I have made the strategic decision to close additional restaurants this year that are outdated and located in underperforming trade areas. These restaurants have AUVs (average unit volumes) of approximately $1.1 million and operating margins well below the system average,” Tanner added.

From the Associated Press:

Wendy’s President and CEO Kirk Tanner said the restaurants that are closing are underperforming compared to others.

“They’re just in locations that don’t build our brands,” Tanner said. “You look at a brand that’s 55 years old and some of those restaurants are quite out of date.”

Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s didn’t provide a list of the locations to be closed. But Tanner said they are spread out all over the country.

“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.”

TODAY reports:

“On our Q3 earnings call yesterday, we shared that the Wendy’s system is incredibly healthy, and we remain on track to meet our goal of 250-300 new restaurant openings for the year,” a Wendy’s spokesperson told TODAY.com via email.

“After our strategic review, we now expect a similar number of closures as openings, so we expect net unit growth in 2024 to be roughly flat. As a 55-year-old brand with more than 7,100 restaurants across the globe, closures are a normal activity to maintain a healthy system. By the end of this year, we will have opened more than 500 new restaurants over the last two years and have the confidence we will deliver elevated growth in 2025 and the years to come.”

Wendy’s did not provide a list of which locations will close.

The closures follow a wave of other national restaurant chains shuttering locations. Late last month, Denny’s announced it will close 150 of its stores, while 7-Eleven also announced plans to close hundreds of locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Red Lobster also closed 23 restaurants in August, after closing 83 locations earlier this year, as part of its bankruptcy proceedings.

 

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