The Frankie and Benny’s restaurant on Aberdeen beach will be closing at the end of the month.
Its parent company, The Restaurant Group (TRG), expects to save £5 million a year by closing its loss-making restaurants.
This means 18 loss-making restaurants by the end of this month – including Aberdeen’s.
The closure is another blow for the Queens Links, which previously saw its Chiquito restaurant, also owned by TRG, close for good back in 2016. Its building still remains vacant near to an empty former Bella Italia branch.
According to Trip Advisor, the closing Frankie & Benny’s was rated 171 out of 393 restaurants in Aberdeen with a three-and-a-half star rating.
There has been no announcement regarding how many staff will lose their jobs.
It comes as the food and restaurant industry on the beachfront has been the scene of some debate in recent weeks.
Aberdeen beach cafes and restaurants that run a bricks-and-mortar operation have been fighting against a food truck influx into the area.
They argue they have to pay out thousands in business rates and bin costs, whereas in comparison food trucks pay none of these costs – just a £195 yearly licence.
‘Extremely disappointing’ day for Aberdeen beach
Scottish Conservative North East MSP Douglas Lumsden said the Frankie and Benny’s closure was an “extremely sad day” for the Aberdeen beach area.
He said: “The restaurant will have been a focal point for families down the years who would eat there before going bowling or to the cinema.
“The esplanade is one of Aberdeen’s incredible assets which is why the council must accelerate the beach masterplan to breathe new life into the area.
“This will undoubtedly provide much-needed help to boost job creation and allow businesses to thrive.
“An overhaul of the Scottish Government’s unfair rates regime which penalises Aberdeen is also desperately needed to prevent more closures like this from happening.”
TRG under long-term UK wide pressure
Meanwhile, TRG has been under pressure for some time across the UK.
In 2019 they announced the closure of 16 restaurants.
TRG still currently runs around 400 restaurants and pubs throughout the UK including Wagamama.
A spokesman for the company said: “We announced a review of our leisure estate in March and made the difficult decision to exit some of our Frankie and Benny’s and Chiquito sites.
“We are working closely with our impacted teams and will look to redeploy colleagues to neighbouring sites across our wider estate wherever possible.”
For those fancying one last meal, The Queens Links restaurant is currently offering a launch noughties nostalgia menu with 20.03% off.
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