Dive Brief:
- MTY Group CEO and President Eric Lefebvre said the company will close 68 corporate locations across its massive brand portfolio, which includes Wetzel’s Pretzels, Cold Stone Creamery and Papa Murphy’s, among others.
- Closures will occur within the next six to nine months, Lefebvre said. While the store closures span several brands, MTY will close between 45 to 50 Papa Murphy’s locations it took over two years ago as part of a turnaround attempt, Lefebvre said.
- The closures follow a detailed performance review of MTY’s corporate-owned portfolio. The restaurants chosen for closure have lost over $10 million combined during the past 12 months, and “their performance was for the most part deteriorating,” Lefebvre said.
Dive Insight:
The closures will only impact about 1% of MTY’s store base, including franchised units, but will allow teams to focus more on profitable locations, Lefebvre said.
“The decision will reduce our store count in the near term, but we believe it is the right long-term action for the business.” Lefebvre said. “It will allow us to reduce losses, improve the quality of the corporate store portfolio, and focus our resources on locations and brands with stronger return potential.”
Closures will occur systematically, with the first series of stores to shutter the week of July 13, he said. This process will move deliberately in order to help protect the staff, negotiate with landlords and handle any distribution issues that might occur.
MTY may close or sell additional stores in the future, Lefebvre said.
“We've been slowly but gradually disposing of some stores where it makes sense for us,” he said. “It's not a fire sale, but we're also in a process where we can reduce the corporate store portfolio.”
These closures won’t likely impact same-store sales much, as the units were generally performing significantly worse than average, Lefebvre said.
“Papa Murphy's, certainly in the U.S., has been struggling more than our other brands as of recent. So that's a significant weight on QSR,” Lefebvre said. “We have some other brands also that have been exposed, where we have various initiatives that are coming, but nothing of the magnitude of the struggles we have with Papa Murphy's.”
Papa Murphy’s has been facing a number of closures in recent years, with its store count falling from 1,168 in 2023 to 1,014 in 2025. But the vast majority of the closures were franchised units, per the chain’s franchise disclosure document. Papa Murphy’s had 49 company-owned units at the end of 2025, the FDD said, meaning the closures will impact most — if not all — of the corporate Papa Murphy’s locations.
MTY Group has also been working with franchisees to improve marketing efforts after a period during which many operators did not sufficiently contribute, Lefebvre said last November. The chain has been working to boost declining digital sales through updates to its rewards program. It has also been working on menu optimization and developed a lineup of new pizzas to help drive traffic.
Companywide, MTY Group’s same-store sales declined by 2.1% during the second quarter, according to an earnings release. The multi-brand platform also reported six net store openings during the quarter. As of Q2, MTY had 7,040 locations, with approximately 97% franchised or under operator agreements.
MTY Group isn’t the only restaurant company closing underperforming locations this year, with Wendy’s and Jack in the Box planning to shutter mostly franchised units. Pizza Hut and Papa Johns also announced significant closures as Domino’s has increased its market share in QSR pizza to the detriment of its competitors.
