Frankie & Benny’s owner to close 33 outlets

THE STRUGGLING owner of Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkel’s has swung to a loss and announced that it is shutting 33 under-performing sites as part of a strategic review.

The Restaurant Group booked pre-tax losses of £22.5m for the first half of the year as it took a hit from a £59.1m exceptional charge linked to the store closures and writedowns.

The site closures will affect up to 1,000 jobs, although it is understood that the company will redeploy the vast majority in other outlets.

Like-for-like sales fell 3.9 per cent as the group, which has issued a string of profit warnings, flagged a “challenging trading period”.

Chairman Debbie Hewitt said: “The board has moved quickly to undertake a review of the operating strategy and we now have clarity on the issues facing our leisure brands, particularly Frankie & Benny’s.

“The brand remains relevant and popular and we are confident that improved performance will be achieved by being more customer-focused and data-driven, and through better operational execution.”

The Restaurant Group admitted it has lost value-conscious customers at Frankie & Benny’s after “significant price increases”.

The firm pledged to “look at the pricing architecture of the menu” and “reinvigorate the value offer” in a bid to attract more families to its outlets. The next phase of the review will look at stablemates Chiquito, Coast To Coast, Joe’s Kitchen and Garfunkel’s.

The Frankie & Benny’s in Foss Islands retail park near York is one of the restaurants that will close.

A spokesman said: “On average, Frankie & Benny’s has 20 to 25 staff in each restaurant. Restaurant Group has approximately 500 restaurants who need staff and the group is opening 24 to 28 restaurants this year. It’s hoped that the employees affected will be redeployed in other Restaurant Group restaurants. There will be few, if any, redundancies.”