Massive Pizza Hut and Wendy's Franchisee Declares Bankruptcy

NPC International, which owns 1,200 Pizza Hut franchises and almost 400 Wendy's locations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today.

As we said about Chuck E. Cheese, there can sometimes be an impression that going bankrupt means going out of business. That is not necessarily the case. Nonetheless, it does often involve a restructuring where the company is scrutinized from top to bottom and this case means that it's likely that underperforming locations of these restaurants will cease operations.

If you are someone who enjoys Pizza Hut and/or Wendy's and want to see if franchises near you could potentially be affected, here is NPG's franchise location searcher.

Per CNBC, an analyst at the investment bank Cowen said that Pizza Hut's parent company, Yum, which also owns Taco Bell and KFC, could lose about $54 million in revenue per year, or 13 cents per share, if NPC stops paying them royalties. A spokesperson for Pizza Hut said they anticipated NPC's bankruptcy filing and is supportive in their quest to get leaner and reduce debt.

The news is not causing a major issue on impacted stocks; at press time YUM is down .79 percent and Wendy's is down .18 percent on a day markets are slightly up.

PS - while I was looking for a display image for this story, I came across this old Pizza Hut commercial starring Donald and Ivana Trump