Wendy’s is the latest restaurant to announce it will close some restaurants. As it reported third-quarter earnings, the fast-food chain said it would close 140 underperforming locations.
But the company stresses it’s not because it’s doing poorly, rather Wendy’s thinks those locations are not very good. It says as it closes those 140 restaurants, it will open 140 more in new locations.
"Wendy's restaurants continued to deliver sales growth during the third quarter, maintaining overall traffic and dollar share in the QSR (quick serve restaurant) burger category," said Kirk Tanner, Wendy’s CEO.
"We continued to strengthen the relationship with our customers through our digital and loyalty platforms while driving growth for the breakfast and late-night dayparts. We expect to build on this progress into the close of this year with exciting new programming to showcase our craveable core, impactful innovation, and relevant value offerings."
Wendy’s will add additional locations
Denny’s and Shake Shack recently announced closings but Tanner says Wendy’s business is growing. In addition to replacing 140 locations, Wendy’s plans to open an additional 250 to 300 new restaurants, adding to its current 6,000 U.S. locations.
The company said the new stores will feature new technology and designs that will improve the customer experience, including newly designed dining rooms, updated kitchens and new pick-up windows.
Despite the upbeat presentation, Wendy’s third-quarter sales showed a slowdown, growing just 0.9%, compared to 3.6% growth in the third quarter of 2023.