In the coming months Americans will be forced to say goodbye to yet another classic American restaurant.
Denny’s recently announced plans to shutter 150 locations by the end of 2025 as it plans to improve its cash flow.
The decision to close 150 of their more than 1,300 domestic locations came as a result of identifying that one-fifth of the restaurants were “dragging down the healthier performers.” Of the weakest performers, nearly half will be closed by the end of 2024, while the rest be serve their last meal in 2025.
According to Denny’s Executive Vice President and Chief Global Development Officer Stephen Dunn, the restaurants slated to close are locations that are too old to remodel or ones that are situated in unprofitable areas.
“Some of these restaurants can be very old. So when you think of a 70-year-old plus brand, you have a lot of restaurants that have been out there for a very long time,” Dunn told investors during the October earnings call.
As for the remaining locations, executives plan to offer incentives to franchisees who make the necessary changes to update their restaurant as part of their Diner 2.0 plan.
While shutting down locations never sounds good, Denny’s CEO insists it’s the right direction for the company.
“We believe this is absolutely the right thing to do to make our system stronger,” Kelli Valade said.
“It’s never easy to close restaurants. It’s a challenge, you work with external factors, landlords,” Dunn said. “And of course, you’re dealing with people’s lives, but we’ve realized that closing underperforming restaurants is strategically advantageous to a number of our franchisees as it strengthens the bottom line cash flow for the long term.”