Wendy’s is closing 140 locations

Wendy’s has announced that it will close 140 of its restaurants.

“We want to further improve our restaurant footprint and overall system health,” Wendy’s President and CEO Kirk Tanner said in announcing the news Oct. 31 during his third quarter earnings call.

“Following this review, I have made the strategic decision to close additional restaurants this year that are outdated and located in underperforming trade areas.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.”

However, Tanner expects the closures to be neutralized by opening more storefronts in different locations.

“We designed this initiative to ensure that over time many of these units will be replaced by new restaurants in better locations with significantly improved sales and profitability,” he said.

“We expect the total closings in 2024, including additional closures in the fourth quarter, to be offset by new restaurant openings this year, leaving our net unit growth roughly flat compared to the prior year.”

Wendy’s, which has continued to enhance its menu with a new Salted Caramel Frosty and a Krabby Patty Kollab meal (in honor of the 25th anniversary of “SpongeBob SquarePants”), has also welcomed new locations into the fold.

“In addition, we opened 64 new Wendy’s restaurants globally during the third quarter and remain on track to meet our goal of 250 to 300 openings for the full year,” Tanner said.

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

“Following 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 around 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 past two years and are confident that we will deliver high growth in 2025 and beyond.”

Wendy’s did not provide a list of which locations are closing.

The closings follow a wave of other national restaurant chains closing 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 across the United States and Canada. Red Lobster also closed 23 restaurants in August, after closing 83 locations earlier this year, as part of its bankruptcy proceedings.

In June, Hooters closed an unspecified number of restaurants. In May, Dine Brands Global, which owns Applebee’s, revealed it would close up to 35 of its restaurants.

In March, Bloomin’ Brands announced it was closing 41 of its restaurants in its portfolio, including Outback, Carrabba’s and Bonefish Grill locations. In January, TGI Fridays announced it would also close three dozen “underperforming” stores.