Yet another national business chain is shutting up shop in Carmarthen, following in the footsteps of a number of others who have done the same in recent years. Restaurant giant Frankie & Benny’s is the latest company to leave the town, with its site in St Catherine’s Walk shopping centre set to close its doors for good.
The owner of Frankie & Benny’s - The Restaurant Group - announced last month that it was planning to reduce its UK estate by about 30%. This means that a number of Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito restaurants across the country will close, following a pre-tax loss of more than £80m in 2022. Some restaurants owned by the group will be sold and others will see their leases expire. Some, it is understood, will be converted to Wagamama restaurants, but this possibility is not being considered in Carmarthen.
What the company has confirmed is that it has made the “difficult decision” to close in the town, and management are working with staff in an attempt to redeploy them to other sites where possible. While the company remained tight-lipped on a final closing date, the restaurant is expected to shut its doors for good next month. You can keep up to date with the latest Carmarthenshire news by signing up to the local newsletter here.
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The closure of Frankie & Benny’s is another blow to Carmarthen's town centre. Since the spring of 2020 the town has lost a number of high street retail and food chains including Topshop, Debenhams, H&M, River Island, Miss Selfridge, Fat Face and Burger King. You can read more about the impact of those closures here.
Frankie & Benny’s was one of the first nationwide chains to open up at St Catherine’s Walk - a multi-million pound shopping centre which replaced the old town mart - back in 2010. The centre looks a very different place now compared to then, but a number of units remain occupied and some local and independent businesses have made a success of moving there.
Meanwhile, the large building which was once home to Debenhams is being transformed into a town centre hub that will, according to Carmarthenshire Council, “benefit local residents, businesses, and visitors”. The new venue - which will be called ‘Carmarthen Hwb’ - will be the first of its kind in Carmarthenshire, bringing together a range of key public services including a gym and other state-of-the-art leisure, culture and exhibition spaces alongside health and tourist information, customer services and access to further and higher education.
St Catherine’s Walk management has not commented on the potential impact of the impending Frankie and Benny’s closure, or on what may replace the restaurant and take up the large unit, which is next to the Vue multiplex cinema. The nearest Frankie & Benny’s to Carmarthen is currently in Bridgend, some 38 miles away, with other sites in Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil.
A spokesman for The Restaurant Group said: “We announced a review of our leisure estate in March and made the difficult decision to exit some of our Frankie & 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.”
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