Major UK restaurant chain with 150 branches shutting busy site for good

A major restaurant chain with more than 150 branches throughout the UK is permanently shutting one of its outlets at a popular shopping centre today. Toby Carvery, which has been dishing up roast dinners for more than 40 years, is closing its restaurant at The Brewery Shopping Centre in Romford. The company intends to hand the site back to the landlord. The chain is aiming to relocate as many staff members as possible to nearby restaurants. The closure comes hot on the heels of a Frankie & Benny's recently vacating the same complex after its lease expired. A Toby Carvery spokesperson told the Romford Recorder when the closure was first announced: "We can confirm the Toby Carvery at Romford will close on May 10 after service and the site will be returned to the landlord. "This decision has been taken after careful consideration and as part of the continual review of our estate and we are in consultation with the team and hope to redeploy as many employees as possible at our other nearby businesses. "We'd like to thank our loyal guests and the brilliant team at Romford for their support.", reports the Express . The spokesperson added that Toby Carvery "look[s] forward to bringing our famous salad bar and fresh rotisserie back once we've identified the right site", while directing customers to nearby branches in Chadwell Heath or Brentwood in the meantime. Earlier this year in February, Frankie & Benny's abruptly closed a UK shopping centre location without any warning. The restaurant at Whiteley Shopping Centre in Fareham, Hampshire, shut its doors 13 years after first opening. The chain has faced considerable decline in recent years, with 120 restaurants shutting between 2020 and 2021, followed by a further 35 earmarked for closure in 2023. In the Black Country, the chain's last remaining outlet closed in September, when the well-established Dudley restaurant served its final customers on August 31 after more than two decades serving the local community. A spokesperson revealed the team was "saddened" by the closure and paid tribute to the "fantastic" staff members who had helped define the restaurant over the years.