Wendy's closing 140 more restaurants as part of push to update its locations

Wendy’s plans to adjacent 140 U.S. restaurants earlier nan extremity of this twelvemonth connected apical of nan 100 it said it would adjacent successful May

Wendy’s plans to adjacent 140 U.S. restaurants earlier nan extremity of this twelvemonth connected apical of nan 100 it said it would adjacent successful May.

But successful a convention telephone pinch investors Thursday, nan institution said those closures will beryllium offset by caller edifice openings. Wendy’s said it plans to unfastened betwixt 250 and 300 restaurants this year.

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

“They’re conscionable successful locations that don’t build our brands,” Tanner said. “You look astatine a marque that’s 55 years aged and immoderate of those restaurants are rather retired of date.”

Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s didn’t supply a database of nan locations to beryllium closed. But Tanner said they are dispersed retired each complete nan country.

“Our attraction is connected building caller restaurants because we cognize they present good complete nan mean of these poor-performing restaurants,” he said. “We, overall, want nan champion restaurants for nan customers and that customer acquisition we want to deliver.”

Wendy’s had 7,292 restaurants astatine nan extremity of nan 3rd quarter. More than 80% of them are successful nan U.S.

Wendy's shares roseate 3.5% successful midday trading Friday.

U.S. edifice income person seen small maturation this twelvemonth arsenic galore consumers pushed backmost against rising paper prices. Wendy’s same-store income – aliases income astatine locations unfastened astatine slightest a twelvemonth – were up little than 1% successful nan U.S. successful nan first half of this year.

Earlier successful October, Denny's announced it will adjacent 150 locations by nan extremity of 2025. And Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy protection successful May aft closing dozens of stores.