Corn Exchange Wahaca will not be reopening
MEXICAN restaurant chain Wahaca is to permanently close 10 of its restaurants, including its Manchester site.
The company is reportedly considering a CVA to secure its future while immediately shutting down more than a third of its portfolio.
It has cited a ‘significant’ depletion of cash reserves during lockdown, and ‘dramatically’ increased rents at its city centre locations.
The closures will include its restaurant in Manchester’s Corn Exchange, which has already seen the departure of Byron burgers and Cabana since it reopened as a restaurant hub in 2014.
Other restaurants affected include those in Liverpool, Bristol, and London.
Wahaca was founded in 2007 by former Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers, and now has 28 sites across the UK.
Miers and co-founder Mark Selby said they were choosing to only reopen restaurants that wouldn’t be losing money ‘to avoid putting the entire business and every job at risk’.
An email sent to staff, titled ‘The hardest email i have ever had to send ..... ’, said: “I have never seen a group of individuals come together and achieve so much in such difficult circumstances and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
“We have achieved so much and Tommi and I are deeply, deeply proud. We will go on to do even more in the future. I am very sure of that.
“However in order to achieve this, and to secure investment for our future, we are going to have to take a step back in order to then move forwards again.
“It is with great sadness that I write to say we will not be reopening 10 of our Wahaca restaurants - Bluewater, Bristol,
Brixton, Charlotte Street, Chichester, Manchester, Liverpool, Kentish Town, Southampton and St Pauls.
“I apologise from the bottom of my heart to all of our teams who will be affected by this. Wherever we can we are going to try and save jobs.”
The email continued: “These have been the hardest decisions of our lives and we have looked at this from every angle with the sole objective of looking after as many of our teams and restaurants as we can without having to close the business for good like so many others have had to do.”
The founders also wrote: “Every business at the moment has had to make what six months ago would have been completely unthinkable decisions.
“This will leave a scar which will take many years to heal and I want to thank all of you who have worked so tirelessly on achieving our vision.
“[We] apologise unreservedly to those affected and once again thank you for everything you have done for us.
“[We] do believe we will go on to achieve amazing things but today we pause and say thank you to all the amazing people leaving us.”
A spokesperson for Wahaca has confirmed the news.
It is not yet known how many jobs will be affected.