Dallas-headquartered TGI Fridays has become the latest restaurant chain to face acute financial problems, with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing on Saturday designed to “ensure the long-term viability” of the casual dining brand.
The Associated Press reports the filing a Texas federal court follows a slow but steady decline for the chain, which peaked in 2008 with 601 restaurants in the US and a $2 billion business – in comparison, the company’s 2023 US sales were $728 million, a 15% year-over-year decline, and only 163 restaurants in the US, down from 269 one year earlier. During this year, TGI Fridays closed 36 eateries in January and dozens more were shuttered over the past week.
Currently, TGI Fridays Inc. only owns and operates 39 restaurants in the US; the other 461 TGI Fridays-branded restaurants around the world are owned by franchisees and are not impacted by the bankruptcy filing.
Rohit Manocha, executive chairman of TGI Fridays, said in a statement that the “primary driver of our financial challenges resulted from Covid-19 and our capital structure.”
Photo by Mike Mozart / Flickr Creative Commons
;
