Diners parked in drive-thru lines at Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers or Chick-fil-A restaurants are helping to drive the popularity of the fried chicken fast-food industry.Fried chicken dining chains were the most popular subsector of the fast-food industry in 2025, as traffic to chicken concepts rose 3% for the year ending September 2025, while all concepts dropped 1% compared to the previous year, according to market research firm Circana.Despite the sector’s popularity, major fried chicken chain franchisees operating Popeyes restaurants are filing for bankruptcy protection and closing locations. Popeyes franchisee Liberty Restaurants Holdings, which operates Popeyes restaurants in Upstate New York, closed a location in Cicero, N.Y. on April 30, 2026,” Syracuse.com reported, and one in Oswego, N.Y., on March 15, 2026, the store’s former manager Mike Ward confirmed to WSYR.
Popeyes franchisee Sailormen Inc. is rejecting leases and closing restaurants that it can’t sell. Shutterstock
Popeyes franchisee closes shopsAnd now major Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen franchisee Sailormen Inc., which operated about 130 fried chicken locations when it filed for bankruptcy in January 2026, has won a judge’s approval to sell 97 of its restaurants to five buyers for a total of $16.55 million, according to court papers.The franchisee, however, might be forced to reject the leases of approximately 33 locations it could not sell and permanently close them.Sailormen sells locationsSailormen won Judge Robert A. Mark’s approval in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami on June 23 to sell 50 Florida Popeyes locations to Pulse Restaurant Group LLC for $2.69 million, 23 Orlando-area restaurants to RFI Ventures LLC for $2.5 million, 16 Miami-area stores to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc. for $9.6 million, 5 Savannah, Ga., locations to SBH Foods PLK LLC for $650,000, and 3 West Palm Beach, Fla.-area restaurants to 61 Biscuits LLC for $1.11 million, according to court orders.The debtor also won court approval on June 24 to reject 18 restaurant leases, consisting of 15 locations in Florida and 3 in Georgia. The sales and lease rejections cover 115 restaurants, leaving about 15 remaining restaurants that the franchisee could not sell to be closed and their leases rejected.Debtor rejects restaurant leasesSailormen Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Jan. 15, 2026, 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.The Miami, Fla.-based wholly owned subsidiary of Interfoods of America Inc. believed that closing the 17 unprofitable locations would reduce its expenses by over $1 million annually.Chapter 11 bankruptcy filedSailormen 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.Sailormen, which was founded in 1987 with 10 locations, was one of the largest domestic Popeyes franchisees in the company’s system, with more than 130 locations in Florida and Georgia before it began closing locations. It employed about 2,900 workers before the closures.The popularity of fried chicken can be traced to the variety of chicken options offered, such as chicken pieces, chicken fingers, or chicken sandwiches, and how consumers enjoy their choices, an expert says.“This is due to the experiences the brands are creating as well as the variety of chicken and how you can enjoy it,” industry expert Reilly Newman of Motif Brands told The Food Institute. “This comes to no surprise, as the experience economy has been taking root across the globe.Where restaurants were sold:Florida: 92 restaurants sold Georgia: 5 restaurants soldSource: U.S. Bankruptcy CourtRelated: 46-year-old dining chain franchisee files Chapter 11 bankruptcy