Applebee's is set to close up to 35 locations across the country this year, according to Dine Brands Global, which owns the fast-casual chains Applebee’s and IHOP. Tony Moralejo, the restaurant chain's president, revealed the exact figure during a fourth-quarter earnings call on February 29, 2024.
“We’re expecting 25 to 35 net fewer domestic Applebee’s restaurants,” he explained, adding that up to 25 new IHOP restaurants are set to open this year as well. “With our new development strategy in place, we feel confident in our ability to continue to open up new restaurants and scale the footprint of our brands over time.”
In 2017, Applebee’s closed over 100 restaurants across the US. Dine Brands CFO Vance Yuwen Chang said during the earnings call that the restaurant chain had net domestic closings of 33 restaurants in 2023. On the other hand, IHOP opened 46 restaurants domestically last year, 17 of which opened during the brand’s fourth quarter.
“I’ll add that these closures, these closures aren’t a sign of struggling franchisees. They’re offering a sign of struggling trade areas,” Tony said. “And I can assure you that our leadership team, we’re pulling every lever we have to offset the downside of closings.”
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"Applebee’s is a mature brand, and it is natural to have closures with changing trade areas and franchisee agreement expiration," he continued. “Our goal is to return to net unit growth in the coming years with a new value engineered prototype and a continued focus on increasing top line sales while improving our franchisees’ margins. Today, our franchisees are still interested in growing the brand, and we remain encouraged by our recent deal with the Flynn Group, our largest franchisee.”
