Fast food company NPC International, which operates hundreds of Pizza Hut and Wendy’s restaurants, is about to apply for deferment.
The large franchisee would have missed an interest payment on outstanding debt and would then have talks with creditors about a bankruptcy filing, according to business newspaper The Wall Street Journal.
NPC owns more than 1,200 Pizza Hut restaurants and 385 Wendy’s stores. It would have about $ 800 million in debt outstanding.
If the company enjoys bankruptcy protection, it will make it easier to close unprofitable restaurants and carry out a reorganization more easily. NPC representatives were not readily available for comment.
NPC is not the first restaurant company to get into trouble as a result of the crisis. The parent company of Chuck E. Cheese and the American branch of sandwich chain Le Pain Quotidien also filed for bankruptcy.
Because of the virus, restaurants had to lock their businesses for weeks to avoid spreading.