Rising traffic in the fried chicken dining sector, which rose 3% industrywide in 2025 according to Circana, wasn’t enough to prevent Popeyes franchisee Sailormen’s financial distress and bankruptcy filing in January 2026.
Sailormen’s economic issues prompted it to divest of all of its restaurant locations.
Bankrupt Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen franchisee Sailormen Inc., which operated 136 fried chicken locations when it filed for bankruptcy, won approval to sell its 23 Orlando area stores a second time after its first sale fell through.
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Popeyes sells Orlando area locations
Judge Robert A. Mark of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami signed an order on July 23 approving Sailormen’s sale of its 23 Orlando region Popeyes restaurants to SBH Foods PLK LLC for $2.67 million.
Sailormen had already won approval from Mark on June 23, 2026, to sell 97 of its restaurants, which included a sale of 5 Savannah, Ga., locations to SBH Foods PLK for $650,000. The debtor also won approval in the deal to sell the 23 Orlando-area restaurants to RFI Ventures LLC for $2.5 million.
Buyer didn’t close the sale
RFI Ventures, however, failed to close on the acquisition of the 23 Orlando locations by its July 12 deadline, which led to SBH Foods PLK agreeing to purchase the restaurants, according to a July 17 court motion.
Sailormen’s sale of the 97 Popeyes locations included 50 units sold to Pulse Restaurant Group LLC for $2.69 million, 16 Miami-area stores sold to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc. for $9.6 million, and 3 West Palm Beach, Fla.-area restaurants sold to 61 Biscuits LLC for $1.11 million, according to court orders.
Franchisee closed 39 locations
The Miami, Fla.-based wholly owned subsidiary of Interfoods of America Inc. also closed 39 locations that it could not sell.
Sailormen filed for Chapter 11 protection after a failed sale of certain locations, a default on credit facilities, and a series of lawsuits and store closings caused the company financial distress.
Popeyes Louisiana Chicken Inc., the parent company of the worldwide chain, did not file for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy involved Sailormen Inc., a major franchisee of the chain.
The debtor submitted a motion in January in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida to reject 17 leases retroactively to Jan. 15 after closing eight locations on Jan. 19, five locations on Jan. 20, and four locations on Jan. 22, according to court papers.
The debtor asserted that the leases should be rejected as of the petition date, since the restaurants were closed within one week of the petition date and before the hearing on the debtor’s first-day motions.
Closing locations could save $1 million
Sailormen believed that closing the 17 unprofitable locations would reduce its expenses by over $1 million annually.
The debtor had won approval to reject 18 restaurant leases, consisting of 15 locations in Florida and 3 in Georgia, on June 24.
Mark approved an amended motion on June 27 to add four lease rejections, which amounted to 19 leases for properties in Florida and 3 leases for Georgia locations.
The franchisee, which was founded in 1987 with 10 locations, was one of the largest domestic Popeyes franchisees in the company’s system, with 136 locations in Florida and Georgia before it began closing and selling locations. It employed about 2,900 workers before the closures.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc., which was founded in 1972, operates over 2,700 restaurants worldwide, according to its website.
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