Huge UK restaurant chain with 87 sites which collapsed into administration could be saved as rescue deal ‘nearly agreed’
A HUGE UK restaurant chain with 87 sites which collapsed into administration is reportedly close to being saved in a rescue deal.
After balancing on the brink of losing all UK sites forever, TGI Fridays may be protected by a deal being negotiated this weekend.
AlamyTGI Fridays could be saved by a rescue deal finalised this weekend[/caption]
TGIFans of the American-style restaurants will be excited[/caption]
The deal would save more than 2,000 jobs, as reported by Sky News, as buyers Breal Capital and Calveton could secure the majority of TGI Fridays branches by tomorrow.
The company co-own a restaurant business called D&D London that specialise in high-end venues.
Insiders claimed the rescue deal could include up to 55 of the chain’s 87 sites and at least 2,000 of its workforce.
However, this would still leave round 1,000 jobs lost.
It comes after TGI Fridays collapsed into administration earlier this year with 87 stores put up for sale.
Hostmore, which owns TGI in this country, was scrambling to sell the franchise so it could continue to operate under new ownership.
The hospitality firm said it had appointed joint administrators from Teneo and planned to sell all of its 87 UK locations to new owners by the end of September.
However, it announced last month that it was not expecting to “recover any meaningful value” from the sale of sites.
This would mean it would earn less from the sale than it owes to creditors and banks.
It saw Hostmore abandon the £177million deal.
News of the collapse caused shares in the London-listed company tank by more than 90 per cent.
After first opening in Birmingham, TGI Fridays spread rapidly around the country with its popular format of casual American bistro-style dining.
Serving staff were known as Dub Dubs, and taught the art of entertaining their customers with jokes, banter, and other gimmicks like juggling and magic tricks, all performed with impeccable table craft and cheeriness.
In the early 1990s, the Covent Garden branch of T.G.I. Friday’s was reported to be the busiest restaurant in Europe.
The chain was acquired by a private equity firm 10 years ago, with a rebrand removing all the punctuation from the restaurant name to make it TGI Fridays.
In 2021, the company was spun out into Hostmore, a listed company and the restaurants were briefly renamed just ‘Fridays’ before marketing chiefs found customers still called it ‘TGI’s’ and restored the original name.
In recent times the chain restaurant’s fortunes have faded, and Hostmore revealed that UK sales have fallen by more than a tenth this year, compared with last year.
Now Hostmore is in the process of selling its UK restaurants to new owners, with the aim of becoming a fully franchise-operated model.
TGI Fridays’ biggest market is in the US where there are 128 restaurants, including franchised sites, and it operates more than 270 in countries around the world.
TGI Fridays locations in the UK
Aberdeen Beach
Aberdeen Union Square
Ashton-under-Lyne
Barnsley
Basildon
Birminghm
Birmingham NEC
Bluewater
Bolton
Bournemouth
Bracknell
Braehead
Braintree
Brighton Marina
Cabot Circus
Cardiff Newport Road
Cardiff St David’s
Castleford
Cheadle
Chelmsford
Cheltenham
Cheshire Oaks
Coventry
Crawley
Cribbs Causeway
Croydon
Derby
Doncaster
Durham
Edinburgh
Enfield
Fareham
Fort Kinnaird
Gateshead
Glasgow Buchanan Street
Glasgow Fort
Gloucester Quays
Halifax
High Wycombe
Jersey
Lakeside Quay
Lakeside Retail Park
Leeds Junction 27
Leeds Wellington Bridge Street
Leeds White Rose
Leicester
Lincoln
Liverpool One
Liverpool Speke
London Leicester Square
London Stratford City
London the O2
Manchester Royal Exchange
Meadowhall
Metro Centre Gateshead
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes Stadium
Newcastle Eldon Square
Newport Friars Walk
Northampton
Norwich
Nottingham
Prestwich
Reading
Romford
Rushden Lakes
Sale
Sheffield
Silverburn
Solihull
Southampton Retail Park
Staines
Stevenage
Teesside
Telford
Trafford Centre
Trinity Leeds
Walsall
Watford Central
Watford North
Wembley
West Quay
RexTGI Fridays has 87 UK sites[/caption]
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings