As many as 350 Wendy’s restaurants could shutter their doors by the end of the year, following hundreds of closures announced in 2024.
“Consistently underperforming” locations affecting the company will be first on the chopping block, in an effort “to boost sales and profitability at nearby locations,” interim CEO Ken Cook said Friday, according to CNN.
The outlet estimates that anywhere from 200 to 350 locations will be put out to pasture after Cook said a “mid single-digit percentage” of the fast food chain’s 6,000 domestic restaurants would close.
It’s unclear which particular locations are being scrapped and how many jobs are on the line. The Daily News has reached out to Wendy’s for additional information, including whether any positions might be absorbed by nearby locations.
The closures of underperforming shops, announced on the same day that Wendy’s reported another quarter of negative earnings, will “enable franchisees to invest more capital and resources in their remaining restaurants,” Cook said.
Wendy’s is anything but the fried gift that keeps on giving, with the holiday season appearing to force the company into cost-cutting mode.
At this same time last year, Wendy’s then-CEO Kirk Tanner announced the company would close 140 “outdated” and “underperforming” locations, following “a robust review of individual restaurants to ensure they meet our expectations for sales, have the profitability to fuel growth and deliver the Wendy’s brand experience for customers.”
At the time, CNN Business reported that Wendy’s intended to build about 250 to 300 more modern locations.
News of the November 2024 closures came roughly six months after 100 other closings were announced.
