THE Restaurant Group, the owner of the Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito chains, is to sell or close 33 outlets.

The firm said it would take a £59.1m charge linked to the closures, pushing it into a half-year loss of £22.5m.

Restaurant Group, which runs 500 theme restaurants, said it had been a “challenging trading period”.

It said its Frankie & Benny’s chain had “suffered due to insufficient focus on value, unsuccessful menu development and poor operational execution”.

The company said it was “taking action” to change this, adding it would stick with the Frankie & Benny’s brand as it remained “relevant and popular”.

It said Frankie & Benny’s had lost customers as a result of “significant price increases and the removal of popular value offers”.

The group also said it had lost customers after it introduced “more ‘authentic’ menus without sufficient testing of the concept”, while many popular dishes were taken off the menus.

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