TGI Fridays to close 35 UK restaurants immediately including three in Greater Manchester - full list
by Fionnula Hainey · Manchester Evening NewsTGI Fridays has confirmed it will immediately close down 35 of its UK restaurants - including three in Greater Manchester - after accepting a new rescue deal.
The high street restaurant chain has agreed to a new rescue deal from Breal Capital and Calveton UK, which will see the firm take on 51 TGI Friday sites.
The remaining 35 sites will be closing with "immediate effect", TGI Fridays said, in a move that will see 1,000 workers made redundant, the Mirror reports.
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Manchester is among the cities that will see sites closed down from today. Birmingham and Leeds will also see some sites shut for good.
The TGI Fridays at Manchester Royal Exchange will close with immediate effect, as will the restaurants in Sale and Prestwich. The Trafford Centre site, and restaurants in Bolton, Ashton-under-Lyne and Cheadle will all remain open.
You can see the full list of restaurants closing and staying open below.
Full list of 35 TGI Friday sites closing
- Barnsley
- Birmingham
- Bracknell
- Brighton Marina
- Bristol Cabot Circus
- Cardiff Newport Road
- Chelmsford
- Cheltenham
- Croydon
- Derby
- Dundee
- Durham
- Edinburgh Fort Kinnaird
- Enfield
- Gateshead
- Gloucester Quays
- Halifax
- Jersey
- Leeds
- Leeds Trinity
- Leicester
- Lincoln
- Manchester Royal Exchange
- Newcastle Eldon Square
- Newport
- Northampton
- Prestwich
- Romford
- Sale
- Solihull
- Southampton West Quay South
- Speke
- Sutton Coldfield
- Swansea
- Watford North
Full list of 51 TGI Friday restaurants to stay open
- Bluewater
- Trafford Centre
- Meadowhall
- Aberdeen Union Square
- Metrocentre
- Basildon
- Glasgow Fort
- Milton Keynes Stadium
- Braehead
- Wembley
- Birmingham NEC
- Glasgow
- Junction 27
- Castleford
- Lakeside Quay
- Teesside
- Bolton
- Norwich
- St Davids
- Doncaster
- Lakeside
- Fareham
- Liverpool One
- Stevenage
- White Rose
- Cribbs Causeway
- Rushden Lakes
- Stoke on Trent
- Southampton
- Silverburn
- Watford Central
- Aberdeen Beach
- Braintree
- Bournemouth
- Stratford
- High Wycombe
- Cheshire Oaks
- Walsall
- Milton Keynes
- Sheffield
- Nottingham
- Edinburgh
- Coventry
- Ashton-Under-Lyne
- Telford
- The O2
- Staines
- Crawley
- Reading
- Cheadle
- Leicester Square
In a statement released today, Julie McEwan, chief executive of TGI Fridays UK, said: "We are devastated for our colleagues who will be leaving TGIs and thank them for their loyalty and contribution during their time with us. We are doing everything possible to retain our team and support those impacted. We would like to thank our team and our loyal guests for supporting us during this transition."
The restaurant chain's chief executive, said today marked the "start of a positive future" for the business after a "challenging period" for casual dining.
"We look to the future with confidence that the TGI Fridays brand will continue to attract loyal and new guests," she said. "We are proud to serve millions of customers across the UK and are committed to continuing to evolve our proposition and to give our guests a great value for money experience that keeps them coming back to enjoy TGI Fridays time and again."
TGI Fridays first opened in the UK in the 1980s and has been a popular destination for birthday parties and cocktail nights for the last 40 years. The first UK TGI site opened in Birmingham.