The Restaurant Group (TRG), which also owns Frankie & Benny’s and Wahamama, has filed notice to put Chiquito brand into administration.
This decision will permanently close the majority of the 81 Tex-Mex restaurants with a loss of 1500 jobs reported The Guardian.
TRG had initially kept Chiquito staff in employment after the governments ordered all restaurants to close to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 – however, following the groups review of the performance of their business divisions, it expects that Chiquito will achieve “negative EBITDA in the financial year ending 27 December 2020”.
A spokesperson for The Restaurant Group said: “Covid-19 has had an immediate and significant impact on trading across the group”.
“The decisions have been incredibly difficult and we recognise the significant impact on all of our colleagues that are affected. We thank them for their hard work and commitment during these very testing times.”
It’s unclear which branches will remain open.
Cover: S Surti