The Wendy's (WEN), a quick-service hamburger company, announced the sale of 70 restaurants in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex to Texas-based MUY Hamburger Partners, a Wendy's franchisee.
The sale is part of the company's system optimization initiative, designed to promote new restaurant growth and reimaging, while generating a more predictable revenue stream for the company.
Wendy's is globally concentrating its restaurant ownership through the sale of about 415 company-operated restaurants in 13 US markets, primarily in the West.
The company has completed the market-by-market sale of 314 restaurants so far, and now expects to complete all of the sales by the end of the first quarter of 2014.
Under system optimization, the company anticipates total proceeds of approximately $235m, including $138m in 2013.
With the purchase of the Dallas-Ft. Worth restaurants, MUY Hamburger Partners will now operate a total of 87 Wendy's restaurants in Texas.
Wendy's president and chief executive officer Emil Brolick said, "We're confident the MUY organization has the talent, proven experience and resources to build on Wendy's strong presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth market through restaurant reimaging, new development and other growth initiatives."
The Wendy's system includes more than 6,500 franchise and company-operated restaurants in the US and 28 countries and US territories worldwide.
