The restaurant on Kamehameha Highway was an “older store that needed lots of upgrades,” said a Wendy’s executive on the Mainland.

“We bought it from our franchisee a couple years ago, and tried to make it profitable,” said Denny Lynch, senior vice president of communications for Wendy’s. “Unfortunately, in this economy, we aren’t able to make it work.”

Calls to the Wahiawa restaurant weren’t answered.

Wendy’s has five locations on Oahu: Puuloa Road, Aiea, Pearl City, Waipahu and Kapolei.

Of the company’s 6,621 domestic and international restaurants, approximately 21 percent are company-owned and 79 percent are franchise-operated.

Company-owned stores are not doing as well as franchises.

Stores owned by the company recorded a 1.2 percent year-over-year drop in sales in the third quarter to $548.1 million. Franchise-owned revenues increased 2.4 percent to $76.8 million.

Meantime, same-store sales for company-owned restaurants declined 0.2 percent, while same-store sales for franchises increased 0.2 percent.

Wendy’s Atlanta-based parent, Wendy’s/Arby’s Group (NYSE: WEN), closed up 0.64 percent at $4.75 a share Monday.

Texas’ restaurant sector is expected to grow 4 percent over the next year, according to the National Restaurant Association’s 2009 Restaurant Industry Forecast. Total sales for 2008 are expected to reach $35 billion.

Meantime, national restaurant industry sales are anticipated to reach $566 billion in 2009, with the industry employing 13 million individuals in 945,000 restaurant and food service outlets nationwide. The NRA forecasts that restaurant industry sales will increase by 2.5 percent over 2008.

Texas restaurants will employ more than 1 million Texans next year.

The number of restaurant jobs in the state is projected to grow 23.4 percent by 2019, resulting in 1.2 million new jobs.

“Even in these tough economic times, it is clear that the Texas restaurant industry is the best place to do business in the nation,” says Richie Jackson, TRA executive vice president/CEO. “While our country is coping with the weakest economy in decades, Texas restaurateurs continue to buck the trends and post positive sales and job growth.”

That’s a 14 percent increase over the number of restaurants that took part in the promotional event in 2008, Visit Denver reported Tuesday. Sixty-two restaurants are taking part for the first time.

In February, 158,340 diners took part in 2008 Restaurant Week. Participating restaurants will offer a fixed-price meal for two at $52.80, plus tax and tip. The event began in 2005 with 84 restaurants.

Visit Denver (the agency formerly known as the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau) issued these statistics for the 2008 event:

• Seventy-two percent of participating restaurants reported a “significant” increase in sales compared to the same week last year.
• Seventy percent of the restaurants had a record-breaking night during the event.
• Forty-five percent of the restaurants sold out at least one night.