Bankrupt Hooters owner closes last eight locations


Monday, Jun. 25, 2007

MANCHESTER – Posters advancing a pay-per-view event still hang in the windows of Hooters, but you'll probably have to find somewhere else to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship event July 7.
The eight remaining restaurants owned and operated by R.J. Fitz L.P., including the Manchester location and two others in New Hampshire, closed their doors last week.

A clerk at the adjoining Amoskeag Inn confirmed that Hooters of Manchester closed Friday, and employees have reported they did not receive paychecks last week. Calls were not answered at any of the chain's three New Hampshire locations: in Manchester, Nashua and Salem.

R.J. Fitz L.P., a Massachusetts-based company that originally operated 12 of the restaurants in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York, has been going through bankruptcy proceedings since October 2006.

The company's financial woes got worse Wednesday when the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boston moved the bankruptcy filing from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 status, forcing the company to cease operations.

"The company just experienced a decline in revenue since the beginning of 2007, which we think is consistent with other businesses in this industry," R.J. Fitz attorney Melvin Hoffman told the Cape Cod Times last week.

R.J. Fitz listed debts of $5.9 million when it filed for bankruptcy in 2006 after Hooters of America, the parent company based in Atlanta, Ga., tried to terminate its franchise agreement.

"There was basically a dispute over some stores in New York state that my clients had agreed to operate on behalf of Hooters of America," Hoffman said. "We needed to get out of that agreement, so that created some ill will on both sides."