4 major food and beverage chains closing locations across Canada

Holy moly, it’s been a year of big changes, and we’re not just talking about how much time we’ve spent in sweats.

For a ton of big-name restaurant brands, this year has been make-or-break when it comes to their brick and mortar locations across Canada.

Major food and beverage chains have recently revealed plans to close tons of outposts across the country. Some have wrapped things up already, and more will be shuttering immanently.

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Here are four major food and beverage chains that have closed or are closing locations across Canada.

Godiva

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Luxury chocolatier Godiva has announced it will be closing all its storefronts in North America this year as a result of the pandemic. In an email sent to Daily Hive, Godiva said it plans to close its 128 brick-and-mortar locations, including the 11 that are in Canada, by the end of March.

DavidsTea

A DAVIDs Tea storefront located in Toronto. (Shutterstock)

This summer, the iconic tea chain announced it would shutter 80 retail locations in Canada as part of a restructuring that would see 124 store closures across the continent. Although Herschel Segal, founder of the Montreal-based beverage brand, promised the closures were being made to ensure the long-term success of the brand, he admitted that all of the closed locations, many that were in malls, were unprofitable. A hundred Canadian locations were expected to stay open.

Starbucks Canada

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A spokesperson for Starbucks Canada has confirmed to Dished that the company will be closing up to 300 stores across the nation by the end of March as part of its next phase of store transformation. This news comes about six months after the coffee giant revealed it would be shuttering up to 200 locations across Canada over the course of two years, information the company released to stakeholders in June 2020.

Nando’s

Ben Molyneux/Shutterstock

Back in the spring, Nando’s Canada announced it would be permanently closing 21 of its locations across Canada due to a sharp decline in sales during COVID-19, the company has announced. The restaurants set to close are all corporate owned-and-operated. The company says, have not been commercially viable for some time. Their losses were reportedly only exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. Nando’s continues to operate over 30 locations across Canada.