TGI Fridays rescue overshadowed by closures and 1,000 job losses

More than a thousand jobs have been lost and 35 TGI Fridays branches closed after a private equity-orchestrated rescue of the embattled British restaurants group stopped short of a full purchase.
The backers of D&D London, which owns top City restaurants including Coq D’Argent and Le Pont De La Tour, are buying 51 TGI Fridays restaurants out of administration, saving about 2,400 jobs.
The deal was overshadowed, however, by the treatment of workers not included in the rescue, amid claims that they learnt of their fate via a video call from head office with one hour’s notice. Others were locked out and told via WhatsApp messages.
Some staff had not been told whether they would be fully paid and reimbursed accrued holiday pay or tips, according to the trade union Unite. This was “frankly appalling behaviour”, it said on X.
TGI Fridays 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 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.”
TGI Fridays 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. The first TGI in Britain opened in Covent Garden, central London, in 1985.
More recently the chain has struggled in the UK, overtaken by fresher formats and struggling with debts. Hostmore called it “a very challenging set of circumstances”.
Daniel Smith, senior managing director of Teneo, said the casual dining sector had been hit by pressures on discretionary spending. The acquisition “preserves a significant proportion of jobs and will hopefully provide the business with the stability and support it needs to recover and grow”.
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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