Hooters is the last chain of restaurants inherited to encounter financial problems in the middle of the high prices of food and work, the evolution of customer tastes and the growing competition of new relaxed channels like Shake Shack.
The American restaurant chain has applied for bankruptcy protection. Hoa Restaurant Group filed the request for the protection of chapter 11 Monday in the bankruptcy court in northern Texas in Dallas.
Last May, it was the red lobster, after which his endless shrimp business was very debated. In August, the Italian channel BUCA DI BEPPO requested the protection of the court.
The TGI Fridays filed for a record last fall, while the Tex-Mex channel on the border filed a record last month.
Hooters and TGI Fridays operated in Oregon; The red lobster always does it.
As part of the Hooters bankruptcy plan, 100 American restaurants belonging to the company would be sold to a group of hooters franchisees. The franchisees, which include founders of Hooters, are currently operating 14 of the 30 highest Hooters restaurants in the United States, said the company.
Hooters, known for chicken wings and its skipy “hooters Girls” waiting internship outfits, said that licensed franchisees or partners would continue to exploit all existing locations, including those outside the United States, there are around 305 Hooters restaurants in 29 states and 17 countries, according to legal files.
Last year, the company based in Atlanta closed approximately 40 sub-performant American locations.
Hooters was founded in Clearwater, Florida, in 1983 by six businessmen without experience of food service who said they wanted to run a restaurant from which they could not be expelled.
But its commercial strategy has been faced with challenges over the years, including prosecution on hiring only of “hooters” to serve customers. In 2017, the company tried to open a restaurant that did not have servers in high tights as a test of an approach different from its original concept.
Last year, Hooters agreed to pay $ 250,000 to pay a trial of discrimination in breed and color brought by the employment opportunities in the United States. According to the trial, a hooters in North Carolina dismissed 43 employees during the cocovated pandemic, but mainly recalled white employees and black employees with clearer skin tones once it has started to re -hire workers.
