The owner of Wagamama, Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquitos confirmed the closure of 35 restaurants and announced its plans to speed up the process and shut down 25 of the sites earlier than planned, most likely by the end of this month. Wagamama, however, will not be shutting down and the closures only apply to Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito.
The Restaurant Group (TRG) explained that as part of the company’s cost-cutting efforts, they plan to remove 30 percent of their sites and reduce them to 75 or 85 restaurants by 2024.
The affected chains this year will be Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito, as the company confirmed in a statement.
TRG told Express.co.uk: “We announced a review of our Leisure estate in March and made the difficult decision to exit some of our Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito sites.
“We are working closely with our impacted teams and will look to redeploy colleagues to neighbouring sites across our wider estate wherever possible.”
The company blamed the higher inflation and energy costs for the closures after a loss of almost £50million last year.
The Restaurant Group said that 35 of its sites will close permanently over the next three years while 25 of them will likely shut down by the end of the month.
Chief executive Andy Hornby said: “We’ve delivered a strong operating performance for the year in a market which has continued to pose a number of headwinds for casual dining operators.
“Current trading has been very encouraging to the great credit of our teams who continue to ensure our customers receive the best experience possible.
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“We have a clear plan to increase… margins over the next three years and deliver significant value for all our stakeholders.”
As part of their cost-cutting plan, the closure of 35 restaurants will save the company £5million per year. Luckily for Wagamama fans, no restaurants will be closing for now.
There are a total of 410 TRG restaurants across the UK, including Wagamama, Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquitos.
But Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito are not the only restaurants struggling this year as Marks and Spencer and B&M also announced store closures this month.
Marks and Spencer will be closing a total of 67 of its clothing and home ranges this year.
M&S stores closing soon:
- Newport Road, Cardiff – set to close in May
- Eagles Meadow, Wrexham – set to close in autumn
- Deansgate, Bolton – closing date to be confirmed
B&M stores closing in May:
- Bishop Auckland branch in Country Durham – set to close May 5
- Widnes, Cheshire – set to close May 17
- Burnden Retail Park, Bolton, Greater Manchester – set to close May 24
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