The owner of 57 Burger King restaurants declared himself in bankruptcy, blaming the high labor costs and inflation for forcing his company to be, according to judicial documents.
Consolidated Burger Holdings, one of Burger King’s largest franchises, owes almost $ 37 million to the creditors and requested the bankruptcy protection of Chapter 11 on Monday.
He is looking to sell his assets through a supervised process in court.
“Recent increases in food and food costs, decreased availability of labor and inflation,” the franchisee problems worsened, said Joseph Luzinski, director of restructuring of the company.
The company’s restaurants are in the Panhandle in Florida, including nine locations in Tallahassee and South Georgia.
Several large franchisees by Burger King have declared bankruptcy in recent years, even in Pandemic and sticky inflation COVID-19, which decimated pedestrian traffic and sales in fast food chains.
The bankruptcy of consolidated hamburgers is the result of “significant pedestrian traffic and the decrease in income without a corresponding fall in rental costs, debt or other liabilities,” said Luzinski in judicial documents.
The company owes $ 36.64 million to less than 1,000 creditors after operating some loss stores, according to bankruptcy documents.
In its most recent fiscal year, the franchisee reported sales of $ 67 million and a net operational loss or $ 12.5 million.
He also suffered a loss of $ 6.3 million in fiscal year 2023.
Burger King demanded consolidated hamburgers in January 2024, claiming that the franchisee broke agreements to remodel and improve substantialized and improve locations.
The two companies reached an agreement in September.
“The Burger King system is much stronger today because it focuses on large franchisees that are committed to investing in their long -term restaurants and equipment,” said Burger King’s spokesman for The Post in a statement.
“This means that a small number of franchisees that are no longer investing in their restaurants will leave the system. We are working quickly to transfer these restaurants to high performance operators.”
In judicial documents, the franchisee said that he spent millions on updates and remodeling in his Burger King stores.
The company has seen several other large franchisees by Burger King for bankruptcy after the pandemic.
Meridian Restaurants Unlimited, Toms Kings and Premier Kings declared bankruptcy in 2023. The three franchisees operated 378 combined locations by Burger King.