After closing 1,000 restaurants, seafood chain sees clear sailing
Key takeaways
- Closing up to 350 restaurants, he said, will improve the financials of those that remain and leave franchise operators with cash to invest in their remaining locations.
- Long John Silver's, an iconic fast-food chain like Wendy's, has also been closing locations — dropping from over 1,000 units in 2015 to fewer than 500 currently, based on the Consumer Edge 2026 Restaurant Outlook report.
- At its peak, the chain operated more than 1,400 restaurants, according to Food Republic.
After closing 1,000 restaurants, seafood chain sees clear sailing Daniel Kline Sun, June 21, 2026 at 6:17 PM PDT 5 min read Sometimes, a business has to get smaller in order to grow, or at least that's what executives, including Wendy's CFO Ken Cook, say when they explain why they're closing locations.
"We're focused on improving restaurant-level economics, taking a hard look at underperforming restaurants in our system from both the financial and customer experience perspective and working with franchisees to improve those, transfer those to another operator or potentially closing them," he said during the chain's third-quarter earnings call.
Closing up to 350 restaurants, he said, will improve the financials of those that remain and leave franchise operators with cash to invest in their remaining locations.