Wendy’s announces the closure of 140 additional locations this year

Wendy’s will close an additional 140 restaurants this year – on top of the 100 closures the company announced earlier in the spring.

But according to the company, these closures should be approximately equal to the number of new restaurants Wendy’s expects to open by 2024.

The latest announcement of the closure came according to the Associated presswhen CEO Kirk Tanner revealed that the locations were “outdated and in underperforming” areas and were performing “well below system average” financially.

“They are only in locations where our brands are not built,” Tanner said, according to the AP. “You look at a brand that is 55 years old and some of those restaurants are quite old-fashioned.”

While the company did not provide a list of the locations expected to close, the CEO clarified that the restaurants were not in “a specific area.”

Per CNNWendy’s conducted “a thorough review of individual restaurants to ensure they meet our sales expectations, have the profitability to drive growth and deliver the Wendy’s brand experience to customers” before determining that “Wendy’s system is incredibly is healthy.”

However, the restaurants slated to close earned below the system average with a unit volume of about $1.1 million, according to USA today. They will be replaced by more profitable locations with average volumes of $2 million or more, the outlet said.

A Wendy’s spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE on Saturday, November 2, that the company is on track to meet its goal of 250-300 new restaurant openings for the year. This means Wendy’s is expected to see a “similar number of closures as openings” overall in 2024, they wrote, after Wendy’s previously announced 100 restaurant closures in May.

“As a 55-year-old brand with more than 7,100 restaurants around the world, closures are a normal activity to maintain a healthy system,” the spokesperson wrote.

During the earnings call, per USA todayTanner said the company has launched about 500 locations in the past two years. According to the newspaper, Wendy’s 7,166 locations as of September 29 included 6,010 in the U.S. and 1,156 elsewhere.

“Our focus is on building new restaurants because we know they are performing well above the average of these underperforming restaurants,” Tanner said, according to the AP. “Overall, we want the best restaurants for the customers and that customer experience that we want to provide.”

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The news from Wendy’s comes as the company channels it SpongeBob SquarePants last month in honor of the cartoon’s 25th anniversary launch the Wendy’s Krabby Patty Kollab – featuring both a Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty and, of course, Krabby Patty Kollab Burger.