CHICAGO — The COVID-19 pandemic whacked Potbelly Corp. in March. Now, the Chicago-based restaurant chain said it's considering shuttering 100 of its approximately 440 restaurants.
CEO Alan Johnson said that while January and February were good months for the chain, March was a disaster.
“The pandemic dramatically impacted our sales and oriented our priorities first around the health and safety of our employees and customers, and second, toward aggressively protecting our balance sheet," Johnson said in a first-quarter earnings statement. "In March, as we abruptly saw our comparable same-store sales drop to -68%, we took immediate and decisive action. Among other things, we shut down dine-in options across our shops in accordance with state mandates, temporarily closed 36 company-operated shops, furloughed one-third of our corporate employees and cut salaries for all executives and corporate employees by 25%. All of these decisions were necessary and painful."
The chain is now considering closing 100 of its shops, he said.
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