Wendy's to close hundreds of US stores in bid to halt falling profit

Wendy’s plans to close hundreds U.S. restaurants over the next few months in an effort to boost its profit.

The Dublin, Ohio-based chain said during a conference call with investors Friday that it planned to begin closing restaurants in the fourth quarter of this year. The company said it expected a “mid-single-digit percentage” of its U.S. stores to be affected, but it didn't give any more details.

Wendy’s ended the third quarter with 6,011 U.S. restaurants. If 5% of those locations were impacted, it would mean 300 store closures.

The new round of closures comes on top of the closure of 240 U.S. Wendy's locations in 2024. At the time, Wendy's said that many of the 55-year-old chain's restaurants are simply out of date.

Ken Cook, Wendy’s interim CEO, said Friday the company believes cl