Fast food chain closing up to 200 locations to pay off $300,000,000 debt

American fast food chain Jack in the Box is shuttering as many as 200 of its locations representing 10% of its restaurants in the US because they are ‘underperforming’.

The company announced during an investors call on Wednesday that it will close 80 to 120 locations by the end of 2025. The ‘remaining underperforming restaurants (will be) closing thereafter based on respective franchise agreement termination dates’, according to the company.

Many of the 150 to 200 restaurants on the chopping block had been operating for more than three decades.

Jack in the Box is closing the doors as part of its effort to pay off $300million in debt over the course of two years. The company did not immediately release a full list of stores closing, but said it would provide more details in August.

The ‘Jack on Track’ plan is aimed at boosting the chain’s financial performance in the long term.

‘Jack in the Box has gotten away from some of the core characteristics that have made it a successful driver of shareholder value in the past and it’s time we return to those basics,’ stated its CEO Lance Tucker during the call.

But starting next year, the company expects to keep its store closure rate to 1%.

The plan also entails exploring possibly selling off the Del Taco brand that it acquired just three years prior for $585million. Jack in the Box stated it is in the ‘process of exploring strategic alternatives’ including ‘divestiture of the business’.

There are 600 Del Taco locations in 17 states. Jack in the Box purchased the brand believing that it had ‘similar guest profiles, menu offerings and company cultures’.

Jack in the Box is based in San Diego, California, and has most of its locations in the West Coast.

The closures news comes the same week that the casual dining chain TGI Fridays was found to have less than 85 locations remaining in the country after shuttering nearly 200 over the past year.

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