National burger and pizza chain files for bankruptcy

(WJET/WFXP) — BurgerFi, a national fast-casual burger chain and owner of Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings, has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company expects a loss of over $18 million in the second quarter of 2024 (April 1 - July 1) and has been struggling with lower operational income, rising wages, increased administrative costs, and restructuring expenses. It also pointed to the rising food prices.

"BurgerFi and Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings are dynamic and beloved brands, and in the face of a drastic decline in post-pandemic consumer spending amidst sustained inflation and increasing food and labor costs, we need to stabilize the business in a structured process," said Jeremy Rosenthal, chief restructuring officer of BurgerFi International, Inc, said in a press release. "We are confident that this process will allow us to protect and grow our brands and to continue the operational turnaround started less than 12 months ago and secure additional capital."

On May 30, the company began seeking "strategic alternatives" and has since been looking for alternative funding sources and restructuring. As of early August, BurgerFi said it had received $2.5 million in emergency funding but only had $4.4 million on hand.

BurgerFi said it currently owes anywhere from $100 million to $500 million to over 10,000 creditors.

According to an SEC filing from August 15, the company had said that if they did not receive adequate relief from its senior lender, it would most likely have to seek bankruptcy protections. In the filing, concerns were also voiced about the future of the company without proper funding saying "the senior lender could foreclose on its security interest and liquidate or take possession of some or all of the assets of the Company and its subsidiaries."

In a press release Wednesday, the company said all of its 144 BurgerFi and Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings locations across the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Saudi Arabia, would "continue normal, uninterrupted operations." The company clarified that "only the 67 corporate-owned locations of both brands" are included in the bankruptcy filing.

"Franchisee-owned locations of BurgerFi and Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings are excluded from the bankruptcy proceedings," the release added.

As part of "a top-to-bottom evaluation of its operations," BurgerFi said it has already closed "19 underperforming corporate-owned stores."

BurgerFi currently has locations in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings can be found in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.