This Famed Breakfast Restaurant Is Closing 150 of Its Locations Soon—Here’s What That Means

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Denny’s is gearing up to close nearly 150 stores nationwide as part of its new growth strategy. According to Restaurant Business, the 71-year-old breakfast chain recently held an investors conference in which management identified the weakest one-fifth of the retail system as being responsible for “dragging down the healthier performers.” This crop of stores will be given a grant offer and loan accessibility in order to improve the brand’s overall consistency.

Of the 150 stores identified as weak financial performers, nearly half will be completely shut down by the end of this year, with the other half shutting down for good later in 2025. Denny’s CEO Kelli Valade told investors, “We believe this is absolutely the right thing to do to make our system stronger.”

Valade’s comments come after the franchisor reported a 0.1-percent decrease in same-store sales from the Denny’s brand in this year’s third quarter alone. She also noted that the closures were necessary to reach HQ’s goals of raising the annual average store volume to $2.2 million and slapping a fresh face on the Denny’s brand. This all comes at a time where the brand has experienced significant loss in traffic across the board, resulting in a 20-percent decrease in sales. “Everyone has lost traffic. Everyone,” Valade told investors.

Denny’s chief development officer, Steve Dunn, gives the weakest performing one-fifth of the chain credit as hurting the rest of the system due to old and outdated stores and markets whose dynamic customer base had unfortunately changed. Dunn essentially quoted the company as “pruning those stores for the benefit of the survivors.”