Nearly 130 Pizza Hut restaurants in several southern and midwestern states are reportedly at risk of shutting down due to financial problems.
The locations are run by a franchisee who filed for bankruptcy in July and put them up for sale, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday, noting there has been a financial dispute between the restaurant chain’s parent company and the franchisee known as EYM Group.
“Some 15 Pizza Hut locations that EYM ran in Indiana and Ohio were abruptly shuttered at the end of June as a result of the dispute. They remain closed,” the outlet said.
“EYM has now asked advisory firm National Franchise Sales to help find a buyer for a further 127 across Illinois, Georgia, South Carolina and Wisconsin,” the article continued, “on the brink of shutting as part of the dispute.”
EYM reportedly owes Pizza Hut over $2 million. It also apparently owes $21 million to Manufacturers Bank.
In an undated post on its website, Pizza Hut said, “We’ve made the difficult decision, together with certain franchisees, to close a limited number of locations in the U.S.,” adding that it still had 6,700 locations that were open.
In 2019, the restaurant chain planned to shut down more than 500 locations as it transitioned from dine-in to delivery, according to Breitbart News.
The Mail report comes as other restaurants around the nation have been closing down. Red Lobster shuttered 100 of its locations, Breitbart News reported in May.
“This comes nearly a month after Red Lobster considered filing for bankruptcy after their all-you-can-eat shrimp promotion led to the company losing $11 million during 2023,” the outlet said.
In June, Hooters made the decision to close dozens of locations as inflation bears down on people in President Joe Biden’s (D) America, per Breitbart News.
“Inflation, the high cost of living, and the post-coronavirus lockdown landscape have created the ‘perfect storm’ for restaurants across the country to fail, analysis shows,” a Breitbart News article from May said.
“From sprawling metropolises like New York City to midwestern towns, Americans are eating out less and less as the value of their dollars plummets,” the article stated.