TGI Fridays’ footprint in the U.S. has been significantly diminished.
The chain’s website listed 85 restaurants across the country, less than a third of the number that operated in the U.S. at the start of 2024, when there were some 270, CNN reported Tuesday.
In November, as TGI Fridays Inc. entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, over 160 were scattered across America, according to the outlet. There have been closures and sales of TGI Fridays restaurants since then.
TGI Fridays Inc. entered bankruptcy “to allow the Company to explore strategic alternatives in order to ensure the long-term viability of the brand,” it said at the time.
Locations franchised to 56 franchisees in 41 countries were not included in the Chapter 11 process, according to its November press release announcing the bankruptcy.
“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 representative for TGI Fridays told FOX Business.
Franchisee Ray Blanchette was chosen to lead TGI Fridays and created Sugarloaf TGIF Management. He was previously 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 representative said. “The bankruptcy impacted less than 10% of the system.”
TGI Fridays’ footprint currently includes 391 restaurants across 41 countries, according to the company.
Blanchette, who is leading TGI Fridays’ comeback efforts, recently told FOX Business that within his first 100 days back, the company had already upgraded 80% of its menu, with a new food and cocktail menu launching nationwide on May 13.
TGI Fridays is also looking to attract a younger audience and “changing the brand voice and freshening it up” with more emphasis on social media, he said in the interview.
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