Typically, a enterprise has to get smaller with a view to develop, or not less than that is what executives, together with Wendy’s CFO Ken Cook dinner, say after they clarify why they’re closing places.
“We’re centered on enhancing restaurant-level economics, taking a tough have a look at underperforming eating places in our system from each the monetary and buyer expertise perspective and dealing with franchisees to enhance these, switch these to a different operator or doubtlessly closing them,” he mentioned in the course of the chain’s third-quarter earnings call.
Closing as much as 350 eating places, he mentioned, will enhance the financials of those who stay and depart franchise operators with money to spend money on their remaining places.
Lengthy John Silver’s, an iconic fast-food chain like Wendy’s, has additionally been closing places — dropping from over 1,000 models in 2015 to fewer than 500 at the moment, based mostly on the Consumer Edge 2026 Restaurant Outlook report.
At its peak, the chain operated greater than 1,400 eating places, in keeping with Food Republic.
The corporate’s Senior Vice President Tony Ellis, very like Cook dinner, believes that the closures, not less than those over the previous three years, have really put the seafood chain in a powerful place to return to development.
Lengthy John Silver’s footprint has shrunk
Tony Ellis informed SeafoodSource that Lengthy John Silver’s has closed “roughly 110 to 120 places over the previous three years.” He mentioned the corporate now operates 214 company-owned eating places and about 262 franchised models, which matches the entire on the corporate’s restaurant locator page.
Lengthy John Silver’s Chief Advertising Officer Laura Ellis mentioned that not the entire closures have been attributable to monetary efficiency.
“We wish our in-restaurant expertise to be as optimistic because the style of our meals, so we have spent a ton of time transforming our footprint,” she mentioned. “As you’ll be able to think about, our model has been round since 1969, so a few of our eating places have been in dire want of a facelift. This implies a few of these eating places are non permanent closures, and a few are a departure from historic technique.”
Tony Ellis defined that almost 70 of the closures got here from the chain exiting co-branded places with Taco Bell, KFC, and A&W, which he mentioned aligns with “broader trade development of main chains more and more preferring single-brand places.”
The chain additionally survived a 1998 Chapter 11 bankruptcy submitting.
“The corporate listed liabilities of $457.3 million and property of $329.1 million within the Chapter 11 submitting late Monday in U.S. Chapter Court docket in Delaware,” the Tampa Times reported.
