The US Hooters chain has filed for bankruptcy protection, while its branch in Taiwan still seems unaffected and is hiring with high salaries.

The American chain restaurant Hooters Of America, known for its service staff, has filed for bankruptcy protection. HOA Restaurant Group applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a court in Dallas, Texas on Monday. It plans to resolve its $376 million debt by selling its company-owned restaurants to a buyer group, and the headquarters stated that it still intends to continue operations and resolve all issues within a few months.

Hooters CEO Neil Kiefer stated that with over thirty years of practical experience in the Hooters ecosystem, he has a deep understanding of customer expectations and knows how to meet their "expectations." In the future, he will focus on restoring the Hooters brand image and simplify the operations of HOA by adopting a purely franchising model to maximize sustainable long-term growth potential.

Hooters Restaurant Introduction

Hooters is an American chain restaurant brand founded in 1983. The Hooters group is jointly owned by Hooters, Inc. based in Florida and Hooters of America, Inc. headquartered in Georgia. Hooters currently has 151 company-operated restaurants, along with 154 operated by franchisees, with the majority of company-owned locations in the United States. In 1997, the first Hooters in Taiwan opened on Qingcheng Street in Taipei, followed by the opening of the Xinyi store in Taipei and the Zhubei store in Hsinchu. In addition to Hooters waitresses, the main offerings are American-style chicken wings, hamburgers, and beer.

Hooter sells common American fast food such as hamburgers and chicken wings, with the advertising slogan "Hooters Make You Happy." The food has no special acclaim, but it is famous worldwide for its hot and healthy sexy waitresses, whose uniforms consist of tight T-shirts paired with hot pants. Hooters has a dual meaning: in American slang, it refers to the breast features of women, and it also means owl; the logo of Hooters is an owl. The salaries at the Hooters Taiwan branch seem quite good, with full-time monthly salaries ranging from 52,000 to 65,000, plus tips and bonuses. Taiwan Hooters also offers Hooters Girl calendar merchandise.

The US Hooters was embroiled in a racial discrimination controversy.

Hooters has been accused of discriminating against employees based on their skin color and paid $250,000 in settlement. The Hooters restaurant located in North Carolina laid off about forty-three employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, reportedly the laid-off employees were Black or darker-skinned Hooters Girls.

The United States chain restaurants are experiencing a wave of collective bankruptcies.

Due to various factors such as rising raw material costs, increasing wages, inflation, and a decline in consumer spending at stores, several well-known chain restaurant brands in the United States, including TGI Fridays, Red Lobster, Bucca di Beppo, and Rubio’s Coastal Grill, have all closed down and simultaneously filed for bankruptcy in 2024. Hooters has also joined the chain restaurant bankruptcy train.

The HOA is seeking $40 million in debt holding financing authorizations from some existing lenders ((Debtor-In-Possession (DIP), which will include $35 million in new capital. Following court approval, Hooters expects the DIP financing to provide it with sufficient liquidity to support operations during Chapter 11 proceedings of bankruptcy protection. Upon completion of this transaction, all Hooters stores in the United States will become franchisee-owned. The Hooter branch in Taiwan does not seem to be affected by the US headquarters, and still solicits Hooters Girl on its official website for a high salary.

This article discusses the bankruptcy protection filing by the American Hooters chain, while the Taiwan branch seems unaffected as it continues to hire at high salaries. It first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.