(RightWing.org) – The nation’s restaurant industry took a big hit during the past few years. Sadly, any hope for a quick recovery after the businesses reopened fell apart as rising inflation gripped the country. Although Burger King is America’s third-largest fast-food chain behind McDonald’s and Wendy’s, it’s not immune to the nation’s economic crisis, and one of its franchisees recently advised officials of the pending closure of all its locations in one state.
On March 22, EYM King LLC sent the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity an official notice under the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act that it would permanently cease operations in the state. The Irving, Texas-based Burger King franchisee said it started closing restaurants on March 17 and expected to have its remaining locations closed “on or by” the middle of April.
The WARN notice lists 26 locations, most of them in metropolitan Detroit and Flint. EYM also confirmed that it would lay off 424 employees due to the closures, none of them union workers.
HAVE IT NO WAY: As the Biden economy spirals, 26 Michigan Burger King franchises are slated to shut down by mid-April. https://t.co/XCEhKTbz7T
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 29, 2023
The notice didn’t state an official cause for the closures. Instead, it attributed them to “unforeseen business circumstances” and an inability to “reach a resolution” to its problems with Burger King’s corporate headquarters.
Fox Business reached out to Burger King, but a spokesperson for the company declined to provide additional information “due to pending litigation.”
On the plus side, Michigan residents will still be able to purchase Whoppers and their other favorite menu items in the state from stores that operate under a different franchise. While it’s unclear exactly how many other Burger Kings will remain open in the state, GPS Hospitality operates dozens of locations throughout the eastern two-thirds of Michigan.
Burger King’s problems this year didn’t start with the Michigan closures. Nation’s Restaurant News reported earlier this year that TOMS King Holdings, one of the fast food chain’s top-performing franchises, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in January. The company operated 90 franchises throughout Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
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