Dozens of staff at Braehead’s TGI Friday’s store have won a reprieve from redundancy as it’s confirmed the restaurant is one of 51 to remain open.
The eateries and 2,400 jobs have been saved by Breal and Calveton, the backers of D&D London which owns top City restaurants including Coq D’Argent and Le Pont De La Tour.
The firm said it would buy out 51 of the 86 restaurants in the UK-wide chain, stopping short of a full purchase. It has vowed to modernise the business and revive its iconic brand.
TGI Friday’s initially said that more branches may still be saved depending on discussions with landlords but the administrators, Teneo, later said 35 restaurants had been closed “immediately” with 1,012 associated redundancies.
Hostmore, the owners of the UK business, filed for administration last month and the operating business then gave notice of intention to appoint administrators.
Julie McEwan, chief executive of TGI Friday’s 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.”
TGI Friday’s traces its roots to a New York restaurant that opened in 1965 with the slogan, “In here, it’s always Friday”.
The franchise expanded to as many as 600 restaurants worldwide at one point with its formula of plentiful cocktails, a casual dining menu of ribs, wings and burgers and branding of red and white stripes. More recently the chain has struggled in the UK, overtaken by fresher formats and struggling with debts.
The new owners of the surviving restaurants are the private equity firms Breal Group and Calveton. They own D&D, Byron Burgers and Vinoteca wine bars.
A spokesman for Breal and Calveton said: “We are delighted to be working with such an enthusiastic and committed management team to both modernise the business and capitalise on the heritage of this iconic brand.”
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