Last week QSRweb reported information from The Tampa Tribune about Whataburger closing all its locations in Central Florida. Pam Cox, group director of communications, Whataburger Restaurants, provided the following statement:
"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. They suffered from declining sales, poor market saturation and high costs of doing business.
"We made the difficult decision to close them as part of our ongoing evaluation process to make all of our restaurants efficient and profitable. Whataburger will continue to operate 38 restaurants in Northern Florida and does not anticipate any additional closings in 2009."
