OHIO \u2014\u00a0One of the largest U.S. franchisees for Wendy’s has filed for bankruptcy protection after the restaurant chain tried to terminate its franchise agreement.<\/p>\n
Meritage Hospitality Group, which operates 314 Wendy\u2019s restaurants in 15 states, said in a statement last week it intends to keep operating its restaurants and paying its 9,000 employees during the bankruptcy process.<\/p>\n
Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Meritage filed its bankruptcy petition in federal court in western Michigan on Sept. 17. According to court documents, Wendy\u2019s filed a notice of termination of the company\u2019s franchise agreement \u201ceffective immediately\u201d on Sept. 16.<\/p>\n
Wendy\u2019s claims Meritage owes $27.4 million in royalties and fees and $119.5 million in continuous operations fees, which companies charge to franchisees when they close locations, according to court filings. Meritage closed 60 underperforming Wendy\u2019s locations late last year as part of a restructuring.<\/p>\n
Asked for comment Monday on Meritage, Wendy\u2019s said its focus is \u201cstrengthening the long-term health of the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe worked with this franchise organization and its lenders for more than a year to find a sustainable path forward,\u201d the company said. \u201cUltimately, based on these circumstances, we determined that termination was the appropriate course of action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wendy’s shares were up 1% in afternoon trading Monday.<\/p>\n
Michigan is Meritage\u2019s largest market, with 54 Wendy\u2019s locations there as well as five Morning Belle and Blue Porch Bar & Grill restaurants. The company also runs 44 Wendy\u2019s in both Georgia and Florida; 29 Wendy\u2019s in Connecticut; 24 Wendy\u2019s in Tennessee; 23 Wendy\u2019s in Oklahoma and less than 20 Wendy\u2019s each in Arkansas, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia.<\/p>\n
Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy\u2019s has been struggling for several years with outdated stores, high beef prices and stiff competition. It closed 240 restaurants in 2024 and said earlier this year that it planned to shutter up to 358 locations this year.<\/p>\n
Wendy’s same-store U.S. sales fell 7% in its most recent quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWendy’s is an iconic brand with exceptional assets. Today we are clearly not performing at our potential,\u201d Wendy’s President and CEO Bob Wright said in a statement last month. Wright joined Wendy’s in May after previously serving as the CEO of Potbelly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OHIO \u2014\u00a0One of the largest U.S. franchisees for Wendy’s has filed for bankruptcy protection after the restaurant chain tried to terminate its franchise agreement. Meritage Hospitality Group, which operates 314 Wendy\u2019s restaurants in 15 states, said in a statement last week it intends to keep operating its restaurants and paying its 9,000 employees during the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12337,12339,1131,195,1451,93,192,2833,2831,2829,2832,2830,145],"class_list":["post-25436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ohio","tag-all-markets-rank-everywhere","tag-app-for-your-consideration","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-top-stories","tag-associated-press","tag-business","tag-news","tag-ohio","tag-ohio-dining","tag-ohio-food","tag-ohio-grocery-stores","tag-ohio-restaurants","tag-top-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117314566622094446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}