Frankie & Bennys: Some Sites Won’t Reopen
The owner of Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkel’s is set to tell staff that a “large number” of its outlets will not reopen after lockdown. In an email to staff seen by the BBC, the Restaurant Group says many sites are “no longer viable to trade and will remain closed permanently.”
The group appears to be speeding up previous plans to shut restaurants as trade suffers due to the pandemic.
Staff will be told if their workplaces will remain shut by email on Wednesday. “The Covid-19 crisis has significantly impacted our ability to trade profitably, so we’ve taken the tough decision to close these restaurants now,” the email said.
The message was sent to managers in the group’s Leisure Division, which includes more than 200 Frankie & Benny’s outlets. It is not yet clear which ones will be shut, or how many.
Those currently working in sites due to stay closed were told: “Unfortunately unless there are any suitable alternative roles identified, it’s likely your role will be made redundant.”
Restaurant Group has declined to comment.
It is one of Britain’s largest restaurant operators, with some 22,000 staff currently on furlough. It also owns the Wagamama chain and some pub units, which are not part of the division which received the email.
The Restaurant Group also said in March that 61 out of 80 branches of its Tex-Mex dining chain Chiquito’s would remain closed permanently as it fell into administration.
It cited the Covid-19 outbreak as having had “an immediate and significant impact on trading”.
However, the group had already announced in February, prior to the introduction of lockdown measures, that it would speed up existing plans to close restaurants.
Initially, it had planned to make 150 closures – which were first signalled in 2019 – over a six-year period. It then said it would close 90 restaurants by the end of 2021.