Fears over future of Frankie & Benny’s NI restaurants amid restructuring plans
Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito owner The Restaurant Group, which has four venues in Northern Ireland, is set to shut around 35 venues.
The group, which also owns pan-Asian chain Wagamama, said the closures would help it shore up cash after reporting widening losses over 2022.
There are Frankie & Benny’s venues in Belfast’s Victoria Square and Boucher Place along with Wagamama restaurants in Victoria Square and Dundonald.
A spokesman said there was no indication yet whether the Northern Ireland sites would be affected but added that only Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito sites were in line for closure.
“We are unable to confirm which locations will close as this remains subject to an ongoing review, particularly as leases come up for renewal over the next two years.”
Andy Hornby, TRG’s chief executive, said the move forms part of a “robust plan” to improve the group’s margins over the next three years.
He told the PA news agency: “Every year a number of leases come up for potential renewal, so the vast majority is where we are going to selectively – and we haven’t fully decided yet, we are going to constantly review the way the sites are trading – exit a number of those, rather than renew the lease for another five or 10 years.
“We will manage that on a localised basis, and the teams will be the first people to know.
“But we are not closing any sites that we think have got long-term profitable futures.”
The group operate approximately 400 restaurants and pub restaurants around the UK.
Up to three of the sites will be converted to Wagamama over the next two years, and the rest will be sold or the leases will be exited or left to expire.
Mr Hornby said the business would try to offer deployments to staff across the affected sites wherever possible, although did not specify how many jobs would be impacted.
The company, which has about 18,000 staff, has already cut a raft of loss-making restaurants over the period, including closing the majority of its Chiquito restaurants at the start of the pandemic to bolster its finances.
But TRG revealed its pre-tax losses widened last year, from £35.2m in 2021 to £86.8m in 2022, as it faced a knock-back from cost inflation across food and drink, energy and wages.
Meanwhile, sales from people dining in at Wagamama increased by nearly a 10th last year, offsetting a 17% decline in takeaway sales as people returned to the high streets.
