(WJET/WFXP) — Hooters, the U.S.-based restaurant chain known for chicken wings and “Hooters Girls” skimpy wait-staff outfits, has filed for bankruptcy protection.
HOA Restaurant Group filed the motion for Chapter 11 protection Monday in the North Texas Bankruptcy Court in Dallas.
The company ran into financial woes as its debts mounted, but it says it intends to stay open and resolve its troubles within months. 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, Hooters said in a news release.
“Our renowned Hooters restaurants are here to stay and we are taking action to strengthen our business to better serve our valued customers over the long term,” the company said in a notice on its website.
The company directly owns and operates 151 restaurants in 22 states and maintains franchise agreements with 154 franchised restaurants across 19 states and 17 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It employs approximately 5,957 employees.
Court documents show that the company currently holds $376 million in debt while it generated $358.9 million in revenue in 2024.
“I’m calling it re-Hooterization,” Neil Kiefer, CEO of HCM Hospitality Group, said in a Bloomberg report.
KIefer said that, “You go to some parts of the country and people say, ‘I could never go to Hooters, my wife would kill me.’ That’s depressing to us. We want to change that.”
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.
Its business strategy has faced challenges over the years, including lawsuits over its hiring of only “Hooters Girls” to serve customers.
Last year it agreed to pay $250,000 and provide other relief to settle a race and color discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against a Hooters outlet in Greensboro, North Carolina.
In 2022, the restaurant refuted claims it was shutting down and rebranding due to changing customer tastes.
In 2019, the Hooters hotel-casino off the Las Vegas Strip was sold to an Indian hotel company and rebranded as the OYO Hotel and Casino.
In 2017, the company tried opening a restaurant that didn’t feature wait-staff in tight tops, as a test of a different approach to its original concept.
The company does not expect any changes to its product offerings, rewards programs, or gift cards.
Several long-lasting brands have filed for bankruptcy in recent years. Among those are Party City, craft retailer JOANN, Forever 21, Big Lots, TGI Friday’s, and The Container Store. Some companies have been able to rebound from their bankruptcy filing — Red Lobster survived its Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year and now has a new owner.
Nexstar’s Addy Bink and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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