Tampa Restaurant Company Closing 41 Outback Steakhouse Locations
Sadly, many Outback Steakhouse’s are going to be closing around the country. The Tampa-based restaurant company Bloomin’ Brands just announced 41 closures for underperforming locations. This doesn’t include just Outback Steakhouse restaurants but also Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, and Fleming’s. Altogether, Bloomin’ Brands owns over 700 restaurants nationwide but it’s sad to see them shut down 41 of their restaurants. The very first Outback Steakhouse opened in South Tampa March 15, 1988, at 3403 Henderson Blvd. and is still doing well.
Bloom’n Brands Closing 41 Outback Steakhouse & Other Restaurants:
Out of all the closures, Outback Steakhouse will see the most shutdowns. Bloomin’ Brand has not released their list of closed restaurants yet. Before this announcement they have quietly closed other locations. According to WFLA, “Locations in Pennsylvania and Iowa have closed and every Outback restaurant in Hawaii recently closed. Bonefish Grill locations in New Jersey and Virginia also closed, and at least three New York Carrabba locations closed.” With all those earlier closures and now this new announcement, it seems the company has been hurting financially for some time now.
There’s a multitude of reasons that these locations needed to be closed including sales and shrinking customer traffic. The final straw for these restaurants was the financial investments that were too costly to improve each location. Bloomin’ CEO David Deno said, “A majority of these restaurants were older assets with leases from the ’90s and early 2000s.” Outback did see another drop in sales during their fourth quarter sliding 0.3%, while Bonefish fell 3%. While on the flipside Carrabba’s was up and doing well, with store sales up 2.5%. Their stock prices are doing well and rose more than 6% in the past five days. Even though they’ve decided to close the stores that aren’t doing well that’s not stopping them from improving. Bloomin’ Brands plans to open 45 new restaurants across the US this year. Outback has been a well-established brand that’s known and beloved by many all over the world.
