Brinker International Inc. has shuttered its eight restaurants in the United Kingdom, Nation’s Restaurant News reports. The restaurants — six Chili's Grill & Bar units, one Maggiano's Little Italy and one Romano's Macaroni Grill — closed Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Brinker said.
Brinker’s Stacey Sullivan told NRN the closings were “consistent with our policy of proactively evaluating operations and closing underperforming locations.” The U.K. restaurants were a Brinker subsidiary, Hatfield Restaurants Ltd., which the company said has been placed into administration, the British equivalent of bankruptcy.
Sullivan said the company would consider re-entering the U.K. “as the economic environment evolves there” and that the company remains committed to opening to having 500 restaurants outside the United States by 2014.