Celina Wendy's is closed

Photo by William Kincaid/The Daily Standard

Wendy's restaurant unexpectedly closed over the weekend, ending its multi-decade run of serving cheeseburgers, fries and Frosty frozen deserts.

CELINA - The Wendy's restaurant in Celina unexpectedly closed over the weekend.

A long-standing fixture on East Market Street, the red Wendy's sign, topped by the smiling, pigtails-framed face of the namesake of the iconic fast-food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas in Columbus in 1969, features the message: "Thank you Celina, please visit our Wapak location."

Wendy's enthusiasts seeking a Baconator or one of "Dave's" line of cheeseburgers over the weekend were met with a slightly more detailed notification affixed to the entrance door and drive-thru menu board of the restaurant, thanking them for "years of support" and stating that the location is permanently closed.

The closure of Wendy's, which served up burgers, fries and its signature Frosty dairy desert for decades at 544 East Market St., came as somewhat of a shock to Celina Mayor Jeff Hazel as the city was not informed beforehand.

"We were surprised," Hazel told The Daily Standard on Sunday evening. "I know they had been struggling for a bit, but we were surprised when we saw they closed."

Wendy's is one of numerous eateries located on a strip of East Market Street. Other current restaurants are Subway and Taco Bell, and in years past Rax Roast Beef, Dairy Queen and Hardee's also operated on the strip.

"It's been there quite a while," Hazel said when asked how long Wendy's had been in business. "I know … they were consistently looking for employees, as are many in the area, but ultimately I believe they had to make a decision one way or another, but we were not informed."

Boxes and other items could be seen piled in the main eating area of the restaurant on Sunday afternoon. A few motorists learned of Wendy's fate when they swung by the drive-thru.

Late last fall, Wendy's shared plans to close 140 U.S. restaurants before the end of 2024 on top of the 100 it said it would close in May.

But in a conference call with investors, the company said those closures would be offset by new restaurant openings. Wendy's had planned to open between 250 and 300 restaurants in 2024.

Wendy's President and CEO Kirk Tanner said the restaurants that are closing are underperforming compared to others.

"They're just in locations that don't build our brands," Tanner said. "You look at a brand that's 55 years old and some of those restaurants are quite out of date."

Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's didn't provide a list of the locations to be closed. But Tanner said they are spread out all over the country.

"Our focus is on building new restaurants because we know they deliver well over the average of these poor-performing restaurants," he said. "We, overall, want the best restaurants for the customers and that customer experience we want to deliver."

Wendy's had 7,292 restaurants at the end of the third quarter last year. More than 80% of them are in the U.S.

The company's first quarter results for 2025 showed global systemwide sales of $3.4 billion, a decrease of 1.1%.

The decline in sales was "primarily due to lower same-restaurant sales in the U.S. segment, partially offset by contributions from net new restaurant openings and same-restaurant sales growth in the International segment."

"We continued to deliver for our customers during the first quarter. In the U.S. we held both traffic and dollar share in a challenging consumer environment, and in our International business we grew systemwide sales by 8.9%," Tanner said in a statement.

- The Associated Press contributed to this article.