These are all the beloved food and drink chains closing restaurants in 2024

The end of 2023 saw the number of restaurants closing in the UK hit a quarterly high, as 514 eateries shut their doors for good.

And it’s not just independent businesses that have been hit hard by inflation, rising interest rates, no-show customers, and the cost of living crisis — some of the big name brands have also been experiencing tough times. 

And while it’s not all doom and gloom, as the popular chains are by no means disappearing from high streets for good, it’s always sad for a town or city to lose a business. 

Take for instance Costa Coffee, the hot beverages are beloved up and down the country, and they have over 2,800 branches. But even they haven’t been completely unaffected by the challenges of the current financial landscape. 

In 2023 Costa shut the doors on eight of their UK sites, including a cafe in Wigan town centre and one in West Bridgford. Two more also closed earlier this year in February (Chiswick High Road and Bruntsfield Place in Edinburgh).

But while some of the branches served coffee for the last time, the chain is already planning new locations, and also recently announced a collaboration with Sainsbury’s to bring new cafes to some of the popular supermarkets.

And Costa isn’t the only one making big changes to their UK restaurants and cafes. Here’s a look at some of the other high street staples that are closing branches in 2024:

Papa Johns

In January 2024 it was reported that almost a fifth of Papa Johns takeaways could close this year as the brand battles high costs and fewer customers.

The pizza chain, which has 450 restaurants across the UK, as well as other sites in service stations and holiday parks, has since revealed they will be closing 43 locations by mid-May.

These branches were found to be ‘low-performing’, ‘underperforming’, or are no longer financially viable.

Prezzo

The Italian restaurant chain fell into administration in late 2020 after being hit hard by the pandemic. They were snapped up by private equity owners Cain International, but the company has had to make some hard choices of late.

Last year they announced they’d be closing 46 branches, including Tunbridge Wells, Oxford, and Plymouth locations. 

At the time, Dean Challenger, the chief executive of Prezzo, said: ‘The last three years have been some of the hardest times I have ever seen for the high street and I’m extremely proud of the way our colleagues have retained Prezzo’s position as an appealing, trusted, great value food and drink experience.

‘We believe the tough decisions we are making today will ensure Prezzo can continue serving communities with high-quality, accessible Italian-inspired meals for many more years to come.’

However, another Prezzo restaurant has since closed in London in February 2024. The Islington branch, which was located below the company’s HQ, opened in 2021 and had acted as a training centre, event space and development kitchen, as well as a restaurant.

While the doors there closed, the doors to a new restaurant at Victoria Place opened, and the Prezzo team said they would be ‘redeploying’ their office there and ‘building on exciting plans for 2024’.

The brand currently has around 96 other restaurants across the UK. 

KFC

Several KFC restaurants closed in January 2024, as the chain simply said ‘all good things must come to an end’.

Locations that shut up shop included The Avenue Retail Park in Bradford, Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough, and Livingstone Street in Glasgow.

But the chicken chain is still thriving, with a reported 1,016 branches across the UK as of March 2024.

Wetherspoons 

Spoons is an icon of the high street, and rightly so with over 800 pubs up and down the country serving up affordable grub and drinks.

Last year, the chain confirmed they were shutting 34 pubs, and as of March 22 this year, they are said to have a total of 814 pubs, after selling another five pubs, terminating the lease of five more and subletting a further three sites.

But fans don’t need to panic about the changes too much, as Wetherspoons claimed they could still go on to open another 200 branches very soon, to take them over the 1,000 milestone mark. 

M&S

Marks & Spencer is one of the UK’s oldest retailers, dating back to 1884, but flash forward to today and while the business is incredibly successful, it’s also making some big changes.

M&S previously announced plans to close 110 stores over the next five years, but they claim this is a ‘strategic’ move to keep up with the changing habits of shoppers, who now love to nab a bargain on second-hand sites like Vinted.

The business wants to scale down its ‘full-line’ stores, going from 305 to 180 by 2028 or sooner. Instead of focusing on fashion and homeware, they’ll have more selling space dedicated to food.

It’s not clear yet how these changes will impact the popular M&S cafes, although one is already set to close, leaving shoppers ‘disappointed’. The cafe at the M&S Foodhall in Didcot will be serving up food for the last time on March 23.

A total of 67 M&S stores are thought to have been nominated for closure, but the locations of these have not been revealed. However, a number of stores have already closed, with more to shut soon. Here’s a look at the branches we know are closing, although some dates are still to be confirmed.

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