{"id":159439,"date":"2026-02-18T06:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/159439\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T06:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:36:24","slug":"wendys-closes-hundreds-of-locations-shifts-focus-to-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/159439\/","title":{"rendered":"Wendy’s closes hundreds of locations, shifts focus to value"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wendy\u2019s is expected to close hundreds of locations this year to help claw back from a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

The company, which had 5,969 locations at the end of 2025, will close between 5% and 6% of restaurants in the first half of 2026, The Associated Press<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

That means between 298 and 358 locations will shutter this year. <\/p>\n

The closures are part of what CNN<\/a> said was a \u201cpreviously announced turnaround plan\u201d released in November. <\/p>\n

It already closed 240 locations in 2024 and 28 in the fourth quarter of 2025. <\/p>\n

CEO Ken Cook said \u201cconsistently underperforming restaurants\u201d will be slated for closure, CNN<\/a> reported. <\/p>\n

A list of locations has not been released. <\/p>\n

Wendy\u2019s will also start focusing on value as it tries to court customers, the AP<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Cook said that the company focused too much on limited-time promotions, but will now push its everyday value model, according to CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It added to its Biggie menu last month, which now has $4 Biggie Bites, $6 Biggie Bag and $8 Biggie Bundle options.<\/p>\n

Latest consumer headlines:<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wendy\u2019s is expected to close hundreds of locations this year to help claw back from a weaker-than-expected fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11751,1579,22298,558,76473,3972,76474,76475,22874,65596,76476,17481,11760,14819,2758,575,76477,11761,44097,52086,2365,116,118,117,7968,5985,11765,60226,76478,722,5221,76479,8530,3577,24299,8529,76480,76481,76482,76483,54412,76484,29925,76485,730,1617,76486,76487,76488,76489,76490,76491],"class_list":{"0":"post-159439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-building","10":"tag-burger","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-central-new-york","13":"tag-chain","14":"tag-cheeseburger","15":"tag-cny","16":"tag-commercial","17":"tag-drive-thru","18":"tag-eatery","19":"tag-editorial","20":"tag-exterior","21":"tag-fast","22":"tag-fast-food","23":"tag-food","24":"tag-food-seller","25":"tag-franchise","26":"tag-frosty","27":"tag-hamburger","28":"tag-international","29":"tag-jacksonville","30":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","31":"tag-jacksonville-news","32":"tag-junk","33":"tag-location","34":"tag-logo","35":"tag-lunch","36":"tag-oneida-county","37":"tag-red","38":"tag-restaurant","39":"tag-rome","40":"tag-shop","41":"tag-sign","42":"tag-signage","43":"tag-store","44":"tag-take-away-restaurant","45":"tag-take-out-restaurant","46":"tag-takeaway","47":"tag-trademark","48":"tag-unhealthy","49":"tag-upstate","50":"tag-upstate-new-york","51":"tag-upstate-ny","52":"tag-urban","53":"tag-usa","54":"tag-utica","55":"tag-wendy","56":"tag-wendy-restaurant","57":"tag-wendys","58":"tag-yorkville-village","59":"tag-yrokville"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}