Guzman y Gomez exits U.S. market, shuts all Chicago-area restaurants
Eight Chicago-area stores closed at once, leaving about 500 workers in limbo and triggering a WARN lawsuit as Guzman y Gomez pulled out of the U.S.
Guzman y Gomez shut down its entire U.S. restaurant business at once, ending operations at eight Chicago-area locations and leaving as many as 500 employees tied to a sudden market exit. The chain said it would leave the U.S. immediately on May 22 and cease trading its restaurants in Naperville, Schaumburg, Evanston, Crystal Lake, Deerfield, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines and Bucktown.
The closures turned a fast-casual expansion story into an abrupt workplace unwind. Former U.S. employees filed a class-action lawsuit in Illinois alleging the company failed to provide advance notice under WARN laws, saying workers learned of the shutdown through an internal messaging platform late on May 22. For restaurant staff, that means missed shifts, lost pay, and one more reminder that even a national brand can vanish from a market with little warning when the numbers stop working.
Guzman y Gomez first entered the U.S. in 2020 and built its only American footprint in Chicago. Founder and co-CEO Steven Marks said the company spent the previous three months in the U.S. and concluded the turnaround would take significantly more time and capital than expected, enough to make continued shareholder investment hard to justify. The company said the exit could deliver a one-time profit-and-loss hit of about US$30 million to US$40 million, with cash costs not expected to exceed US$15 million.
Investors appeared to approve the retreat. Shares of Guzman y Gomez rose as much as 20.58% after the announcement, a sharp vote of confidence in exiting a loss-making expansion rather than trying to force it through. Analysts said the chain faced structural challenges in Chicago and never carved out enough differentiation from Chipotle Mexican Grill to make a durable U.S. run likely.
The decision leaves Guzman y Gomez back on firmer footing in its larger global business, which still spans Australia, Singapore and Japan. But in Chicago, the immediate story is not strategy or sentiment. It is the payroll disruption, the legal fight over notice, and the collapse of eight restaurants that never found a stable place in the American fast-casual labor and cost equation.
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