TGI Fridays to close 12 restaurants in the US
They come in addition to the 35 other locations that the company decided to close in the U.K., putting an end to nearly 1,000 jobs.
A TGI Fridays restaurant from the street.
The TGI Fridays food and cocktail restaurant chain has decided to close 12 of its U.S. locations and 35 more in its international division. Most of the restaurants of the U.S.-based company were located in the northeast region of the country.
The closure of these 12 restaurants comes after the chain failed to save more than 1,000 jobs that disappeared the previous week in the United Kingdom, where 51 restaurants were threatened by cuts, well known for its affordable prices and happy hours for cocktails.
In the United States, the closures are in New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Connecticut, Virginia, the Carolinas, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. The reasons that have led the company to close this total of 47 restaurants, adding up to almost 1,400 layoffs, are not fully known.
After these closures, the company, with more than 50 years of history, has around 215 open locations in the United States, according to the record they keep in their website.
This is, however, the second episode of heavy cutbacks in terms of physical locations. In January 2024, the brand already had to shut down another 36 restaurants that did not meet performance targets. These closures were framed as part of a long-term viability strategy for the company.
That same month, it also sold eight of its corporately owned restaurants to its former CEO, Ray Blanchette. TGI Fridays then stated it was in an "era of transformation" that would help it drive continued revenue for the chain.
"We’ve identified opportunities to optimize and streamline our operations to ensure we are best positioned to meet – and exceed – on that brand promise," the company said in a statement.
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