Over 100 Chiquito and Frankie and Benny’s Restaurants Could Close Across the Country

Frankie and Benny’s and Chiquito restaurants likely to close across U.K.

Wagamama owner, The Restaurant Group, intends to dispose of half of its restaurants based at leisure sites — cinemas, retail parks, shopping centres — at the earliest opportunity, to offset a significant loss incurred by the takeover of high street noodle success story Wagamama, falling restaurant sales, and the group’s own £115.7 million revising of property assets. This largely applies to Italian-American chain Frankie and Benny’s and Tex-Mex chain Chiquito, with “at least 124” sites likely to shut, according to the Guardian. Though these closures are to take place as sites become available for exit over an estimated six year period, rather than immediately, this would be the largest downsizing in the casual dining market yet. [Guardian]

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• Good tweet: