Wendy's closing hundreds of 'underperforming' restaurants nationwide as profits fall

National fast food chain Wendy’s plans to shutter hundreds of "underperforming" restaurants nationwide but declined to say which it plans to close — or if any closures are slated for Long Island.

The Dublin, Ohio-based company has 229 locations in New York and 51 on Long Island, including three in Farmingdale and two in Hauppauge, according to Wendy’s website. Interim CEO and chief financial officer Ken Cook estimated that a "mid-single digit percentage of U.S. restaurants" would shutter as the company attempts to boost profits among its remaining sites.

The company "can't provide specific numbers and locations at this time," a spokesperson for Wendy's said Monday in an email to Newsday.

"We are working with our U.S. franchisees to evaluate each and every underperforming restaurant in our system from both a financial and a customer experience perspective and developing action plans for how to improve both," Cook said during the company’s third-quarter call with investors on Nov. 7. In some cases, "the solution will be to close consistently underperforming restaurants," Cook added.

If just 5% of Wendy's Long Island eateries were to close, that would amount to two or three restaurants. Wendy’s closed 240 locations across the country last year, when then-president and CEO Kirk Tanner said they were underperforming and "out-of-date," The Associated Press reported.

Cook, who became Wendy’s CEO in July after Tanner left for The Hershey Company, said Wendy’s hoped to improve some of its struggling stores with new technology, and that closures would "boost sales" at nearby locations that remain open.

But nationwide, sales at Wendy’s have suffered so far this year. Wendy’s revenue fell 2% in the first nine months of 2025, to $1.63 billion, as fast food chains nationally struggle to attract lower-income consumers scared off by prices pushed higher by inflation, The Associated Press reported.