It might seem impossible for TGI Fridays to hit 1,000 units and $2 billion in revenue by 2030, but CEO Ray Blanchette said the once-bankrupt chain has a clear path to growth through its “1-2-3 Strategic Vision.”
“It was us just doing the math and believing that we can continue to build momentum off of what’s already been created,” Blanchette said.
Blanchette returned as CEO of the chain in 2025, shortly after the chain emerged from bankruptcy with an eye on growth, menu innovation and franchising. He is a long-time Fridays franchisee through his company Sugarloaf Hospitality, and originally served as Fridays CEO from 2018 to 2023.
TGI Fridays, which has over 400 units across over 40 countries globally, has signed 150 restaurant and development agreements globally over the past six months, and the chain is on pace to double that amount this year, Blanchette said. With this annual growth and the addition of alternative development channels like hotels and airports, 1,000 units by 2030 is attainable, he said.
One of the chain’s biggest growth focuses is non-traditional space, like airports and hotels. The company began prioritizing the hotel space in 2024, opening locations at the Hilton Garden Inn in Hollywood, California, and the Courtyard Marriott near Chicago Midway Airport. TGI Fridays now has 10 to 15 hotel locations globally, according to Blanchette.
He said the hotel strategy was born out of Fridays’ success in airports, where the chain has several high-volume restaurants.
“We know that business travelers and family travelers really prefer a brand that they know when they’re in airports, as opposed to some of the things that they see,” he said. “For us, it was about meeting customers where they are.”
Adding a full-service branded restaurant like Fridays to a limited-service hotel also helps the hotel itself, he said. The hotel sees food and beverage revenue triple or even quadruple and the additional service could allow the hotel to charge higher nightly rates. It also takes little time to renovate the hotel’s limited-service restaurant, typically 30 to 60 days depending on if it has a full kitchen or bar already.
Globally, the hotel strategy has opened up significant opportunities in Asia and the Middle East. In a hotel in Dubai, Fridays offers a full bar, making it one of the few places travelers can buy alcohol in the city, Blanchette said.
“We are a premium brand outside the U.S. — a branded experience in those hotels works well,” he said. “We're having some high-level conversations with major hotel brands about a rapid growth strategy.”
Boosting franchise profitability
With TGI Fridays technically 100% franchised, Blanchette says a big focus at corporate is to boost franchise profitability.
“What I’ve learned in the 30-plus years of being in franchising is development agreements aren’t worth the paper they're written on,” Blanchette said. “If [franchisees] are missing their numbers, you can’t make them grow. It doesn’t matter what the contract said. They’re just not going to put more money into an investment that’s not paying the expected returns.”
In 2024, TGI Fridays closed over 100 of its corporate owned stores — the remainder closed or were transferred to franchisees, like Blanchette’s Sugarloaf, over the last year. But the chain also lost franchised restaurants during that time, according to TGI Fridays’ franchise disclosure document.
Franchised restaurants in the U.S. declined from 152 at the start of 2022 to 81 at the end of 2024, with the bulk of the closures happening in the later part of that timespan. In 2024, franchisees closed 48 locations. The brand’s average unit volume at franchised stores in 2024 was nearly $5 million.
That average is lifted by a small fraction of stores — five restaurants posted gross sales averaging nearly $10 million. By contrast, a majority of franchised stores (44) posted average gross sales clustered around the $2 million mark, however, meaning there is plenty of room for improvement in unit economics.
TGI Fridays corporate is helping franchisees by reviewing their financial health, including leverage ratios, four-wall performance, benchmarking against each other so that management can identify and help operators understand how to improve, Blanchette said. TGI Fridays does quarterly business reviews for domestic franchisees. It also does biannual franchisee reviews that examine everything from profits and losses to development plans.
Then, the team offers action plans and follows up on progress. The team shares best practices and gives operators specific things to improve, like local store marketing.
“A lot of it is teaching them to fish, not giving them a fish,” Blanchette said.
Future development is a mix of existing commitments that have increased over time, and new commitments. For example, an operator in Peru originally signed up for two restaurants in 1997 and now has 24 restaurants, and recently revised its agreement to target 30 units, Blanchette said.
Another long-tenured operator in Japan is also refocusing on growth, as is the brand’s operator in Greece. TGI Fridays has a flexible prototype that allows operators to fit into second-generation space. TGI Fridays in Japan recently opened a restaurant that is about 2,000 square feet, compared to the U.S. average footprint of roughly 7,500 square feet.
Its priority markets are now the U.K. and the U.S., where it is already seeing improvements. Blanchette’s Sugarloaf Management, which operates several TGI Fridays in the U.S., bought TGI Friday’s U.K. business in November with the intention of growing it.
“We’re buying it thinking about owning it 50 years from now,” Blanchette said. “I think you make different brand decisions when you know that you’re going to own this business for a long time.”
“We had to build the infrastructure right from the ground up to support the global enterprise and … [reengage] franchisees around the globe and give them a strategy to believe in,” Blanchette said.
One of the first things Blanchette did when he became TGI Fridays’ CEO in 2025 was create a Management Advisory Committee in lieu of a board. That committee consists of five international franchisees and two domestic operators, in addition to Blanchette, who is also a franchisee. That body is actively involved in building the strategic plan and views things through the lens of being an operator.
“That makes it easier to sell these ideas to the rest of the franchise system when they know it’s franchisee led,” Blanchette said.
More menu innovation in the works
TGI Fridays will lean on menu innovation alongside its growth strategy. The brand is using its global reach to tap into different flavor profiles and reach younger consumers interested in different global tastes.
“Flare is what we’re known for, and we think that enables us to do things with our food strategy that become more believable,” Blanchette said. “People expect us to do things that others might not.”
One way the chain gathered ideas was through a global innovation contest among its team members, who were asked to come up with new menu items. If they won the contest, they were sent on a vacation to a country of their choice where TGI Fridays is located.
“We filled the pipeline with all these great ideas, had a lot of fun and we’re able to recognize some team members along the way,” Blanchette said.
Improving hospitality, employee experiences
TGI Fridays’ recent Google and Yelp ratings are at an all-time high for the brand, which Blanchette said that this indicates “that we’re selling better experiences at the restaurant level today.” While the reviews might not always mention food, they often mention a server or bartender, he said.
“Our brand is delivered and expressed through our people, and it always has been,” he said. While the chain hires for personality, it trains to improve talent and interactions with guests, and it is increasing employee training.
The company hired Andrew Stotter-Brooks as head of global learning and development in January to help with training for current staff and future executives. The company also uses programs that help develop and prepare people for additional responsibilities, he said. About 80% to 90% of Fridays’ managers are promoted from within, for example.
“What we say in a growth company is you don’t have an opportunity to grow. You have an obligation to grow,” he said. “We’re challenging our people to take that piece seriously to cross learning chasms, to take on new challenges and to develop themselves.”
Blanchette said that setting higher standards of excellence is boosting retention, since people want to work for the best teams, especially if there is a culture of recognition.
