Taco Bueno Restaurants L.P. is closing 16 locations across four states, reducing its total unit count to 172, the quick-service Tex-Mex brand said Tuesday.
The Farmers Branch, Texas-based company said 10 of the closures, effective Monday, were in the North Texas, three were in Okla., two in Mo. and one in Kan.
“We continually review our restaurant portfolio performance,” Taco Bueno CEO Omar Janjua said in a statement Monday. “These closures were a strategic decision based solely on business demands and changing traffic patterns.”
Janjua added, “This portfolio adjustment will allow us to pursue new restaurants in strong trade areas.”
Janjua, formerly CEO of Atlanta-based Krystal Company, joined Taco Bueno in March. A Taco Bueno statement said one of Janjua’s first objectives was “to identify underperforming business areas and reallocate resources toward more productive pursuits.”
“It is our plan to reinvest in new locations and to remodel others to better serve our guests,” Janjua said Monday.
Taco Bueno said managers and employees impacted by the closures are being offered transfers in the Taco Bueno system where they were available.
“We appreciate the effort of our teams throughout their time with us, and we hope to keep as many hard-working people as possible,” Janjua said.
Taco Bueno ranked No. 175 in U.S. systemwide sales in the 2018 Nation’s Restaurant News Top 200 rankings, down from No. 171 in the prior year. The brand’s systemwide sales were estimated at $210.8 million for the fiscal year ended in December 2017.
The announced Taco Bueno closures included two locations in Arlington, Texas, three in Fort Worth, Texas, and two in Kansas City, Mo. Singular closures were in the Texas cities of Balch Springs, Dallas, Granbury and North Richland Hills, the Oklahoma municipalities of Enid, Norman and Oklahoma City and one in Kansas.
Taco Bueno, founded in 1967 in Abilene, Texas, was acquired by San Francisco-based private-equity firm TPG Growth in December 2015 from New York-based Palladium Equity Partners.
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