Canfield Ruby Tuesday Closing After Chain’s Chapter 11
CANFIELD, Ohio – Ruby Tuesday is closing more than one-third of its restaurant locations, including the one in Canfield.
The chain’s two other area locations – Austintown and New Castle, Pa. – will remain open, said an employee at Austintown.
The casual-dining chain, based in Marysville, Tenn., will permanently close 185 stores that had shut their doors during the pandemic, leaving 236 operating locations.
On Wednesday, the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing the “unprecedented impact” of the COVID-19 on their business.
The remaining 236 company-owned restaurants remaining open will operate as usual while Ruby Tuesday uses the filing to “strengthen its business by reducing liabilities and emerge a stronger organization built for the future,” the company said in a news release.
As of Wednesday, the company also had 7,000 company-wide furloughed employees as a result of the store closures.
“This announcement does not mean ‘Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday,’” said Shawn Lederman, Ruby Tuesday’s CEO, in a statement. “Today’s actions will allow us an opportunity to reposition the company for long-term stability as we recover from the unprecedented impact of COVID-19.”
At the time of the chain’s merger with NRD Capital Management in 2017, the company owned 541 stores, and has since “struggled in an increasingly competitive and challenging business environment” including the shift from casual to fast-casual dining.
In 2019, in response to these challenges, the company closed underperforming stores and sold or leased back 189 restaurants and accelerated their plan to improve to-go and online ordering.The onset of the pandemic in March 2020 added another set of challenges for the already-struggling brand.
Pictured: Visitors to New York’s Times square walk past a Ruby Tuesday restaurant. Ruby Tuesday is filing for bankruptcy protection, the latest casual chain to suffer from coronavirus-related closures and changing consumer habits. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
