The location closures keep coming for Burger King as the latest involves a third franchisee declaring bankruptcy in late October. More locations close as reports come in from Florida, New York, and Nebraska being the latest.
The latest Franchisee, Premier Kings has 172-units to it’s name. Owner, Manraj Sidhu passed away in 2022 leaving the operation in disarray, and reported as causing “operational instability”.
However reports say that Premier Kings has been declining since 2020 with a $27 million net operating loss.
Premier Cajun King’s also operated by owner Manraj Sidhu, owned 19 Popeyes locations, and also declared bankruptcy recently.
In September two additional major franchisees, Meridian Restaurants, and Toms King declared bankruptcy. – With 120-units, and 90 respectively, the restaurants were auctioned on September 19th to the highest bidder. Those that didn’t sell, were filed in a motion in court to have them closed.
CEO of Burger King Joshua Kobza reiterated that everything is going according to plan which is to slough off under-performing, and aging stores, and concentrate on the ones that are run in accordance with their “vision”.
“We closed older and lower performing restaurants to support a more modern system increasingly run by better operators,” Kobza said.
Burger King’s $400 million Reclaim The Flame plan was set into motion in 2022, and focuses on revitalizing the brand with updated marketing and digital upgrades throughout their existing locations.
The announcement to close 400 restaurants by the end of the year came during an earnings call, and was emphasized to be normal operational sacrifices so to say.
When questioned if Kobza knew the exact closure count, he said:
“I would emphasize that there is a fair degree of uncertainty regarding exact numbers, and this will depend, to some extent, on the pace of recovery in the business, which we’ve already begun to see.”
