Hooters of America, known for chicken wings and “Hooters Girls” waitress outfits, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday as it seeks to address its $376m debt.
HOA Restaurant Group filed the motion for Chapter 11 protection in the North Texas Bankruptcy Court in Dallas after previously flagging its financial troubles, as Breitbart News reported.
The company said its restaurants, which serve classic American bar food, will stay open during the process and operate “in a business-as-usual manner.”
AP reports a group of the company’s original founders that own almost a third of Hooters’ U.S. locations, including about half of its biggest volume restaurants, plans to buy and operate more of the outlets.
“Our renowned Hooters restaurants are here to stay,” Sal Melilli, chief executive of Hooters of America, said in a statement.
“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone in our efforts to reinforce Hooters’ financial foundation.”
The AP report notes Hooters, based in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in Clearwater, Florida, in 1983. Trouble had been brewing for a while.
Hooters had sponsored the No. 9 NASCAR car driven by Chase Elliott since 2017, but last year, Hendrick Motorsports ended its ties to the longtime sponsor because it was not meeting its financial commitments.
File/30 Jan 1997/ Several Hooters girls look on during a softball charity game during the CART spring testing in Homestead, Florida. (Darrell Ingham /Allsport via Getty)
As Breitbart News reported, Hooters closed dozens of locations last summer as inflation continued choking customers and companies in then-President Joe Biden’s America.
“Like many restaurants under pressure from current market conditions, Hooters has made the difficult decision,” a Hooters spokesperson told New York Post at the time, referring to the shut down some of the company’s restaurants.
Approximately 40 of its 300 Hooters restaurants across the globe had been shuttered at the time.
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