A significant pizza chain is making ready to shut dozens of eating places as soon as once more as its guardian firm works to remove underperforming areas following what executives describe as a “difficult interval” for the enterprise.
The restructuring is a part of a broader effort to enhance the efficiency of its corporate-owned eating places, with the primary shutdowns anticipated to start throughout the week of July 13 and proceed over the following a number of months.
The transfer comes as pizza chains throughout the trade grapple with larger working prices, shifting shopper spending, and intense competitors. In current months, manufacturers together with Pizza Hut and Papa Johns have additionally introduced vital retailer closures as they reshape their networks.
Now, one other well-known pizza chain is becoming a member of a rising checklist of manufacturers lowering their restaurant footprints.
Papa Murphy’s confirms restaurant closures
Throughout MTY Group’s second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings name, CEO Eric Lefebvre mentioned the corporate plans to shut 68 underperforming corporate-owned eating places over the following six to 9 months.
As much as 50 of these areas are anticipated to be Papa Murphy’s eating places, whereas the remaining closures will have an effect on different MTY Group manufacturers.
Based in 1979, MTY Group (MTY) is considered one of North America’s largest restaurant franchisors, working greater than 80 restaurant manufacturers, together with Papa Murphy’s, Wetzel’s Pretzels, Chilly Stone Creamery, and others, throughout Canada, the U.S., and worldwide markets.
Some eating places are scheduled to shut completely throughout the week of July 13, although Lefebvre mentioned the corporate is taking a measured method to attenuate disruption for workers, landlords, and suppliers.
“We have been slowly however step by step disposing of some shops the place it is smart for us,” mentioned Lefebvre. “It isn’t hearth sale, however we’re additionally within the course of the place we are able to scale back the company retailer portfolio.”
He added that extra restaurant closures stay doable if different areas proceed to underperform.
Why Papa Murphy’s is closing shops
In line with Lefebvre, the corporate evaluated every restaurant individually based mostly on its long-term monetary outlook and native market situations. The areas chosen for closure collectively generated greater than CAD 10 million in losses.
“The place we noticed a path to enhance, we selected to proceed investing efforts into making our current belongings as productive as they are often,” mentioned Lefebvre. “The place the fundamentals not assist that path, we made the choice to shut shops.”
Though the closures will quickly shrink MTY Group’s total restaurant depend, executives consider the transfer will strengthen the enterprise by lowering losses and permitting the corporate to concentrate on areas with stronger long-term development potential.
The corporate estimates closure and lease termination prices of between CAD 10 million and CAD 12 million. Whereas these bills will weigh on free money movement within the quick time period, MTY Group expects the restructuring to enhance profitability going ahead.
Executives additionally mentioned the shutdowns are unlikely to have a significant influence on same-store gross sales as a result of the affected eating places have been performing effectively under the system common.
Papa Murphy’s confirms plans to shut as much as 50 eating places.Shutterstock
Papa Murphy’s has been shrinking for years
The newest closures proceed a multiyear downsizing effort for Papa Murphy’s, which has struggled to regain momentum in an more and more aggressive pizza market.
About two years in the past, MTY Group repossessed three teams of Papa Murphy’s eating places that it believed could possibly be rotated. After investing in these areas, the corporate finally concluded that lots of the markets have been not viable and determined to shut the shops as a substitute.
Because of this, Papa Murphy’s whole retailer depend declined from 1,168 eating places in 2023 to 1,014 in 2025, in accordance with the corporate’s franchise disclosure doc. Most of these reductions concerned franchise areas.
The chain ended 2025 with simply 49 company-owned eating places, that means the most recent restructuring will have an effect on nearly all of its corporate-operated shops.
Pizza Hut: Closed roughly 250 eating places throughout the first half of 2026, NRN reported.
Papa Johns: Plans to shut as much as 300 areas by way of the top of 2027, Quick Firm reported.
The newest closures spotlight how even established pizza chains proceed to rethink their footprints as operators steadiness rising prices with softer shopper demand.
