Wendy’s confirmed its plans to close hundreds of locations in the United States over the next few months during a conference call with investors on Friday (November 7), the New York Post reports.
The fast food giant said it will start closures beginning in the current fourth quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, but expected a “mid-single-digit percentage” of U.S. stores to be affected, though not providing additional details. Wendy’s had 6,011 restaurants nationwide at the end of the third fiscal quarter and 300 locations would be prone to closures if 5% were impacted.
The fast food chain had previously closed 240 locations nationwide in 2024, claiming that the affected locations were simply out of date at the time. Wendy’s interim CEO Ken Cook said he believed closing locations that are underperforming would improve traffic and profitability to the remaining restaurants during the conference call on Friday.
“When we look at the system today, we have some restaurants that do not elevate the brand and are a drag from a franchisee financial performance perspective. The goal is to address and fix those restaurants,” Cook told investors.
The interim CEO claimed that Wendy’s would make improvements to some of the struggling stores, which may vary between the addition of new technology and equipment, a transfer of ownership or shutting down the stores entirely. Numerous fast food chains have struggled to attract lower-income consumers as inflation rates have increased, which Cook confirmed was expected to continue for the remainder of the fiscal year.
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