BREAKING: Noodles & Company to shut down 55 restaurants

Noodles & Company will shut down 55 “underperforming” restaurants — more than 10 percent of its total locations nationwide — by mid-2017 as the chain struggles to improve its financial performance.

Officials with the Colorado-based chain have not yet identified which restaurants will close.

Dave Boennighausen, Noodles & Company's interim CEO, said in a statement Thursday that the closings and an infusion of cash from an existing shareholder "are critical to the long-term success of Noodles & Company," according to Nation's Restaurant News.

Noodles & Company plans to use cash from the deal to satisfy liabilities associated with the closure of restaurants, as well as costs associated with a data breach last year, and to invest in its remaining restaurants, the NRN story said.

Noodles & Company operates four restaurants in the region:

• The Greene, 11 Greene Blvd., Beavercreek.

• Austin Landing, 3400 Rigby Road, Miami Twp.

• Tylersville Road, 7791 Cox Lane, West Chester Twp.

• Mason, 9368 S. Mason-Montgomery Road, Mason

RELATED: New Noodles & Company to open Monday in Austin Landing (January 2015)

There are three more locations in the Cincinnati area:

• Tri-County, 11725 Princeton Pike, Springdale

• Kenwood, 7800 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati

• Hyde Park, 3707 Isabella Ave., Cincinnati

Noodles and Company considered adding a restaurant on Brown Street near the University of Dayton in late 2015, to the extent of applying for a liquor license in the space, before pulling out of the deal. A new Bibibop restaurant opened in the space instead.

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About the Author

Mark Fisher

Mark Fisher, a 1981 graduate of Ohio State University and a 1976 graduate of Beavercreek High School, is a third-generation Dayton-area resident who has worked for the Dayton Daily News since 1983. He covered higher education and K-12 education accountability issues for nearly 20 years before taking over the food and dining beat in 2006.