Interactive map reveals 87 TGI Friday’s restaurants at risk of closure as owner scrambles to sell chain – see full list

COLLAPSING chain TGI Friday’s is at risk of closing all 87 of its UK restaurants after it put them up for sale – see our map showing all the locations affected.

Today it was confirmed that the restaurant chain’s owner Hostmore had put all 87 of its TGI Friday’s outlets up for sale.

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Earlier this month, Hostmore cast doubt on the future of the brand when revealed it would be winding up its ownership by the end of September.

Analysts had warned that this could mean “game over” for the American themed chain.

Sites across the UK all the way from Aberdeen to Southampton have been put up for sale, potentially impacting millions of diners.

Hostmore is currently scrambling to sell the TGI Friday’s franchise so that it can continue to operate under new ownership.

The hospitality firm said it had appointed joint administrators from Teneo and hopes to sell all of its 87 UK restaurants to new owners by the end of September.

If successful, the TGI Friday’s brand could stay alive and the losses of thousands of jobs could be prevented.

But it said earlier this month that it was not expecting to “recover any meaningful value” from the sale of sites – meaning it would earn less from the sale than it owes to creditors and banks.

It has not been confirmed if all of TGI’s restaurants could be saved, or just a selection, with others potentially being taken over by another chain.

The restaurant chain first opened in the UK in the 1980s and has been a popular destination for birthday parties and cocktail nights for the last 40 years.

The first branch of T.G.I. Friday’s was opened in New York in 1965 to celebrate weekend dining – the name means ‘Thank God It’s Friday – and in 1986 the brand was imported to the UK.

This comes after Hostmore abandoned plans to buy all the TGI restaurants in the US, where there are 128 sites, in a deal that would have been worth £177million.

It would have merged with US-based TGI Fridays Inc, to create a larger firm that would remain listed in London.

But the takeover plans were dropped after a management change which would have meant it could not collect royalties from the TGI Fridays brand.

News of the collapse caused shares in the London-listed company tank by more than 90 per cent.

The share price has fallen by 98 per cent since the start of this month to just 19p as of today.

The American-inspired restaurant chain continues to stay open as normal while the administration process starts.