MTY Group, the parent company of Cold Stone Creamery and Wetzel’s Pretzels, will close 68 of its corporate-owned restaurants over the next nine months to reduce financial losses.

The closures will primarily affect the company’s Papa Murphy’s pizza locations. MTY President and CEO Eric Lefebvre announced the decision following an internal review, as reported by Restaurant Dive. The closing locations lost a combined total of more than $10 million over the last year.

“The decision will reduce our store count in the near term, but we believe it is the right long-term action for the business,” Lefebvre said. “It will allow us to reduce losses, improve the quality of the corporate store portfolio, and focus our resources on locations and brands with stronger return potential.”

Specifically, MTY will close 45 to 50 Papa Murphy’s units that it acquired two years ago during a turnaround attempt. Because the chain had only 49 company-owned stores at the end of 2025, according to its franchise disclosure document, these closures will wipe out nearly all of its remaining corporate locations.

The pizza chain has steadily declined in recent years, with its overall store count dropping from 1,168 in 2023 to 1,014 in 2025. However, the vast majority of those earlier losses involved franchised locations rather than corporate ones.

“Papa Murphy’s, certainly in the U.S., has been struggling more than our other brands as of recent,” Lefebvre said. “We have some other brands also that have been exposed, where we have various initiatives that are coming, but nothing of the magnitude of the struggles we have with Papa Murphy’s.”

The 68 closures represent about 1 percent of MTY’s global footprint. At the end of the second quarter, MTY had 7,040 total locations, with roughly 97 percent operated by franchisees or under operator agreements.

Because the targeted stores were performing significantly below average, Lefebvre told investors that the closures were unlikely to have a major effect on same-store sales. According to its latest earnings release, MTY Group’s network-wide same-store sales declined 2.1 percent in the second quarter, though the company did record six net new store openings during the same period.

To boost sales at Papa Murphy’s, management has been adding new items to the menu and reworking its loyalty program. Last fall, Lefebvre noted that the company was also working with franchisees to improve marketing efforts after a stretch in which many local operators did not contribute enough funding.

The restructuring process will begin immediately, with the first wave of closures scheduled for the week of July 13. MTY has not ruled out selling or closing more locations in the future.

“We’ve been slowly but gradually disposing of some stores where it makes sense for us,” Lefebvre said. “It’s not a fire sale, but we’re also in a process where we can reduce the corporate store portfolio.”

MTY Group is not alone in cutting locations. Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, Pizza Hut, and Papa Johns have all announced closures this year, according to Restaurant Dive.