TGI Fridays’ footprint within the U.S. has been considerably diminished.
The chain’s web site listed 85 eating places throughout the nation, lower than a 3rd of the quantity that operated within the U.S. in the beginning of 2024, when there have been some 270, CNN reported Tuesday.
In November, as TGI Fridays Inc. entered Chapter 11 chapter proceedings, over 160 had been scattered throughout America, in keeping with the outlet. There have been closures and gross sales of TGI Fridays eating places since then.
TGI Fridays Inc. entered chapter “to allow the Company to explore strategic alternatives in order to ensure the long-term viability of the brand,” it mentioned on the time.
Areas franchised to 56 franchisees in 41 nations weren’t included within the Chapter 11 course of, in keeping with its November press launch asserting the chapter.
“The story about TGI Fridays – the iconic restaurant-bar chain that invented casual dining, the singles bar concept, and the Long Island Iced Tea – is not the closures but the new structure and new strategy,” a consultant for TGI Fridays advised FOX Enterprise.
Franchisee Ray Blanchette was chosen to steer TGI Fridays and created Sugarloaf TGIF Administration. He was beforehand the chain’s CEO from 2018 to 2023.
“The brand, distinct from the entity that filed for bankruptcy, is now led by franchisees, with a franchisee advisory board empowering and shaping brand-wide decisions,” the TGI Fridays consultant mentioned. “The bankruptcy impacted less than 10% of the system.”
TGI Fridays’ footprint at present contains 391 eating places throughout 41 nations, in keeping with the corporate.
Blanchette, who’s main TGI Fridays’ comeback efforts, just lately advised FOX Enterprise that inside his first 100 days again, the corporate had already upgraded 80% of its menu, with a brand new meals and cocktail menu launching nationwide on Might 13.
TGI Fridays can be trying to appeal to a youthful viewers and “changing the brand voice and freshening it up” with extra emphasis on social media, he mentioned within the interview.
