Wendy's Is Closing 140 'Outdated' Restaurants

If your local Wendy's is showing its age, its days could be numbered. The chain says it will close 140 restaurants in the coming months, on top of 100 closures announced earlier this year, CNN reports. The restaurants getting the chop are outdated and underperforming, CEO Kirk Tanner said. "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think about strengthening our system, you look at a brand that's 55 years old and some of those restaurants are just out of date," Tanner said, per USA Today. He said the restaurants slated for closure aren't in "one particular area." He added: "Overall, Wendy's system is incredibly healthy."

The chain is building 250 to 300 more modern restaurants, so the number of Wendy's locations in the US will remain at around 6,000 despite the closures. "After our strategic review, we now expect a similar number of closures as openings, so we expect net unit growth in 2024 to be roughly flat," Wendy's spokesperson Heidi Schauer told USA Today. The chain's third-quarter net income dipped slightly year-on-year, but Tanner said he expects strong fourth-quarter figures, partly because of a "powerful response" to the chain's SpongeBob Squarepants-themed Krabby Patty promotion. (More Wendy's stories.)