Pollo Tropical, the restaurant chain best known for its chicken dishes with a Caribbean twist, has announced the closure of 10 underperforming restaurants.
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Decline in comp sales and feverish expansion are blamed
Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc.—the parent company of the Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana fast casual restaurant brands—blames the closure primarily on two factors: A decline in comparable sales at certain Pollo Tropical stores and rapid expansion in the Southwest that may have been too much too soon.
“After a period of aggressively growing Pollo Tropical in Texas we have hit the pause button to focus on building brand affinity, frequency and awareness, while continuing balanced system development over time,” Interim Fiesta President and Chief Executive Officer Danny Meisenheimer said in a press release.
“We believe closing or rebranding these underperforming stores provides the opportunity to further strengthen our operational and financial performance across the remaining restaurants in Texas and across our Pollo Tropical brand as a whole.”
Affected restaurants include eight in Texas, one in Nashville and one in Atlanta. Three of the Texas locations will be rebranded as Taco Cabana restaurants. No word yet on which three those will be.
Frisco
9055 John Hickman Parkway
Frisco, TX 75035
Watauga
7304 Denton Highway
Watauga, TX 76148
Dallas
4622 Greenville Avenue
Dallas, TX 75206
Denton
2220 South Loop 288
Denton, TX 76205
Southlake
2640 Southlake Blvd.
Southlake, TX 76092
New Braunfels/San Antonio
1188 IH 35 S
New Braunfels, TX 78130
Houston
6311 Garth Road
Baytown, TX 77521
Houston
3170 Gulf Freeway
League City, TX 77573
Nashville
6704 Charlotte Pike
Nashville, TN 37209
East Cobb/Marietta
680 Johnson Ferry Road
Marietta, GA 30068
The announcement of the closure of the 10 stores comes at an odd time. As recently as September, Fiesta said it planned to add up to 14-17 new locations in Florida and Georgia in 2017, in addition to 8-10 new Taco Cabana locations in Texas.
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