Gourmet Burger Kitchen has announced it's to close some stores.

The burger joint announced today that 17 stores will close, which will put around 250 jobs at risk. It's safe to say that there has been an abundance of burger restaurants opening up in Ireland over the past few years, which is obviously stunting the growth of GBK. Eateries such as Bunsen Burger, Wowburger and Five Guys have expanded into Ireland, let alone the UK. GBK's managing director Derrian Nadauld said: "Given the challenging UK casual dining environment and over-rented UK restaurant estate, we are having to take tough but necessary actions to reduce our fixed cost base and restore long-term profitability." Famous Brands, who run Gourmet Burger Kitchen brought in Grant Thornton to advise GBK on kicking off a company voluntary arrangement process which will see the company trying to turn profits around. Creditors of the company will vote on November 9 on what action to take, but until then the restaurants will run as normal. It is unknown at this stage whether any Irish branches will shut down.