Could Your Local Wendy's Be Closing Soon? The Mystery Deepens

It’s a burger bust.

One of the largest Wendy’s franchisees — Meritage Hospitality Group — is aiming to close down another round of restaurants after a year full of shutters and a Sept. 16 bankruptcy filing.

The company operated 314 Wendy’s restaurants at the time.

The Michigan-based brand is asking the court for approval to close at least 20 locations — but no more than 60.

If approved, customers will say goodbye to their square-shaped burgers through Nov. 13. 

Which locations will shut down?

That remains a mystery, as the court filing specifies that all shutters will be determined and disclosed “at a later time.”

The Post reached out to the franchisee, which also owns other branded restaurants across 15 states, for a list of locations. We did not immediately heard back.

This isn’t the first time Meritage Hospitality Group has frozen its Frosty production.

Court filings specify the Michigan-based company has deleted 33 restaurants from its portfolio, including 20 in September and another 13 in October.

All told, Meritage — which was originally a hotelier — had closed about 60 underperforming stores before filing for bankruptcy in September. Those shutters began in Q4 of last year.

This means the company has lost about 93 locations in total since last year. 

Those closures across multiple states were deemed necessary by the company’s lenders for the group to continue spending cash during the bankruptcy process, according to Fast Company.

“Because the substantial majority of Meritage’s restaurant portfolio operates under Wendy’s brand, those system-wide pressures have had a significant impact on the Company’s financial position,” Meritage said in a previous statement.

Meritage told The Post its goal is “to keep as many restaurants open as possible. We will provide updates when there is meaningful new information to share rather than commenting on each procedural filing.”

Wendy’s corporate has also planned to close down hundreds of locations, the Ohio-based burger chain revealed in a recent investor call. The company called it an effort to boost its profit and make remaining stores more appealing to its customers.

The fry hub said it planned on shutting down about 5% to 6% of its US restaurants in the first half of 2026 — which comes out to about 240 to 360 locations.

“By closing consistently underperforming restaurants, we’re enabling our franchisee partners to increase focus on locations with the greatest potential for profitable growth,” the company said in a February statement.

The move comes as Wendy’s reported same-store sales declines for six straight quarters as diners move to other fast food mega-chains. Back in August, Wendy’s was dethroned as the nation’s No. 2 burger chain by the king itself — Burger King.

The ousting ended its six-year run just behind the mac daddy, McDonald’s.