The Restaurant Group puts further 22 sites on the market

The company, which operates brands including Chiquito’s, Garfunkel’s and Frankie & Benny’s, now has a total of 44 sites up for sale through Savills.

It is understood half of these have already closed, but the remaining restaurants will continue trading until they are sold.

A spokesperson was unable to confirm which sites were up for sale, but TRG’s financial results for the year to December 2018 identified 76 “structurally unattractive” Frankie & Benny’s locations.

TRG closed 41 sites in 2016 and 2017, of which it has now exited 34.

TRG says in a statement: “These further sites that are up for sale is in line with what we said at our full year results, that a number of our leisure sites are in structurally unattractive locations and we are actively reviewing our estate and exploring options for such sites in line with our strategy.

“The group will endeavour to redeploy staff to other sites within our portfolio.”

The sale comes after a year of acquisitions for TRG, which bought 11-strong gastropub group Food & Fuel for £15.4m​​ in March 2018 and the Wagamama chain for £559m in October.​​

It has also developed a grab-and-go spin-off of the Wagamama brand, Mamago​​, which it will trial in the second half of 2019.