Another restaurant chain is in the financial hot seat, and a lot of chicken is on the line. Sailormen Inc., one of the largest franchisees of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a rough year marked by debt, lawsuits, and falling traffic.
Based in Miami, Sailormen has more than 130 Popeyes locations, mostly in Florida and Georgia. At the time of filing, the company was carrying close to $130 million in debt.
According to the court filing, the past year had been especially hard for the company, as inflation pushed up everyday costs. Customer habits also shifted after the pandemic, meaning fewer people were coming through the doors. According to the company, all of that together made it harder to keep up with its bills.
To ease the pressure, Sailormen sold 16 Georgia restaurants in late 2023 to a buyer called Tar Heels Spice. That deal never closed, and the company stopped paying rent on those locations in April 2024 and later sued the buyer for breach of contract.
Things got worse in December, when its main lender, BMO Bank, sued Sailormen and asked the court to take control of the company’s assets.
What Is Sailormen?
Sailormen was founded in 1984 to operate Popeyes restaurants. It was acquired by Bob Berg and Steve Wemple in 1987, at a time when the company ran 11 locations in the Miami area.
During the 1990s, the franchise expanded into multiple states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, and Mississippi. Between 2012 and 2018, the company sold off locations in several of those states and narrowed its focus to Florida and Georgia, where it continued developing new stores.
As of mid-January, Sailormen was operating 136 Popeyes restaurants and employed more than 3,200 hourly workers. The company hasn’t disclosed yet whether any locations will close.
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