Fort Lauderdale-based BurgerFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection but plans to keep all of its stores open while it figures out how to climb out of its debt.
The company, known for high-quality burgers, hot dogs and craft beer and wine, acquired Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza & Wings in 2021 but has been signaling possible financial trouble for months as it coped with rising food prices and declining sales.
In May it announced it was undergoing a “strategic review process” and offered no assurance that the process would result in an outcome “favorable to the Company or its shareholders.”
In August, it warned it had just $4.4 million on hand and expected to report a loss of $18.4 million for the second quarter. It also said then that it might have to file for bankruptcy.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the company said the filing in United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware affected only its 67 corporate-owned locations of both brands and excluded 77 franchisee-owned locations in the United States, Puerto Rico and Saudi Arabia.
In the Hampton Roads region, BurgerFi’s website shows its only local restaurant, in the Williamsburg area at 6610 Mooretown Road, is temporarily closed.
Jimmy Rosenthal, chief restructuring officer of BurgerFi International Inc. was quoted in the statement as saying, “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.”
Rosenthal added, “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.”
The brand has been undergoing a top-to-bottom evaluation of its operations as part of turnaround efforts that began in 2023 to address what it called “foundational issues including declining same store sales, high employee turnover and a stale menu.”
The company recently closed 19 underperforming corporate-owned locations. Its statement said its “current platform is primed for success.”
In June, the industry website Restaurant Business Online reported that Jeff Crivello, founder of TREW Capital Management, might be planning to leverage TREW’s purchase of BurgerFi debt into a takeover of the company. TREW and L Catterton, another private equity firm, had each agreed to lend BurgerFi $2 million during the strategic review process.
Crivello is known as a “fixer” who had recently turned around Minneapolis-based barbecue chain Famous Dave’s. On Wednesday, he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he planned to make a bid to purchase the chain during a sales process that will take place as the bankruptcy unfolds.
The company grew out of a single location in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea that was founded in 2011 by David Manero, creator of two Vic & Angelo locations. It is headquartered on Cypress Creek Road.
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
