Fast-food giant Wendy’s is shuttering 140 underperforming locations through the end of 2024 as it looks to improve its “restaurant footprint and overall system health.”
To counter the closures, though, the Ohio-based company is working to replace many of these units with “new restaurants at better locations with significantly improved sales and profitability,” Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner told analysts on its third-quarter earnings call.
The company thoroughly reviewed individual restaurants to ensure they meet sales expectations and are profitable enough to support growth, and said that the locations closing are “outdated and in underperforming areas,” with operating margins far below the system average, Tanner said.
“I think when you think about strengthening our system, you look at a brand that’s 55 years old and some of those restaurants are just out of date,” Tanner said.
This restaurant footprint optimization is part of a slate of initiatives Wendy’s is deploying to strengthen the brand and its operations across the company and its franchisees.
The company didn’t disclose where the closures will be, but Tanner noted that “it’s not one particular area.”