Popular Restaurant chain to axe four Northern Ireland outlets

The Restaurant Group is to close four of it's Northern Ireland outlets. 

Frankie and Benny chains in Coleraine, Ballymena and Londonderry will be shut, along with a Chiquitos outlet in Belfast. 

The group is to close 33 sites across the UK in a bid to recover from a difficult start to the year. 

Around 500 jobs are likely to be effected by the move, which comes just two weeks after the company ousted chief executive Danny Breithaupt.

He was replaced by Andy McCue, who stepped down as chief executive of Paddy Power after its recent merger with Betfair.

Restaurant Group's half year results came out last week where the company said the chain "suffered due to "insufficient focus on value, unsuccessful menu development and poor operational execution".

"In 2015, we began to introduce more 'authentic' menus without sufficient testing of the concept," said company chair Debbie Hewitt.

"This led to the removal of many popular dishes from the menus and led to a further decline in covers.

"We are now clear about where we want to focus, who we want to measure ourselves against and how we will deliver. 

"We have a detailed action plan, with many actions already underway."