Whataburger to shutter units in Central Fla.Whataburger to shutter units in Central Fla.

Ron Ruggless

CORPUS CHRISTI Texas Whataburger Restaurants LP said Tuesday it plans to close 18 stores at the end of the month, including 14 in Central Florida, which marks a complete retrenchment in an area where the company just four years ago had anticipated steady growth.

The Central Florida restaurants include five units each in the Tampa and Orlando markets and four in the Gainesville-Ocala market.

Pam Cox, group director of communications for Whataburger, said, “Whataburger pursued an aggressive turnaround effort with these restaurants for two years after purchasing them from a franchisee.

“Unfortunately, our efforts were unsuccessful and these restaurants were no longer smart business investments,” she continued. “They suffered from declining sales, poor market saturation and high costs of doing business.”

Four years ago, the company had indicated the Tampa-Orlando-Jacksonville market could accommodate more than 110 Whataburger units.

Cox said 38 restaurants elsewhere in Florida would remain open after the May 31 closure of the 14. The company also said it was closing three units in the Phoenix area and one in Sherman, Texas.

“We made the difficult decision to close them as part of our ongoing evaluation process to make all of our restaurants efficient and profitable,” Cox said, adding that the company does not anticipate any additional closings this year.

Whataburger, which is in the process of moving its headquarters from Corpus Christi to San Antonio, has about 700 locations.

Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].