Bachmann served in the role since July 2023, navigating the company’s tenuous year of sales declines and high-debt management that led to its bankruptcy filing
In an 8-K filing released Monday, BurgerFi announced that the sale of its assets from both its Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza and BurgerFi brands were court approved. The sale comes shortly after the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in September.
The Nov. 8 approval provides for the sale of Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza assets in exchange for a credit bid of $44 million and the sale of the BurgerFi assets in exchange for a credit bid of $10 million, both to TREW Capital Management Private Credit 2 LLC. The sale of the Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza assets closed on November 15, and the sale of the BurgerFi assets closed on November 27.
Additionally, on Nov. 15, Carl Bachmann departed the company and his role as chief executive officer and joined the purchaser of the Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza assets. The company notes that Bachmann’s departure was “not a result of any disagreements with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies, or practices.”
Bachmann had served in the CEO role since July 2023, about two years after BurgerFi acquired Anthony’s amid a challenging run in which the company incurred sizable debt and closed dozens of underperforming restaurants. Though he had a strong plan in place to turn things around – as shared in an interview last year with Nation’s Restaurant News – a challenging macroenvironment squandered things. This year, BurgerFi began considering “strategic alternatives” and entered into a forbearance agreement with existing creditors that extended through the end of July, for instance. In August, BurgerFi hired Jeremy Rosenthal as its chief restructuring officer and according to the Ch. 11 filing, was “authorized, empowered, and directed, with full power of delegation, to negotiate, execute, deliver, and file with the bankruptcy court,” while Bachmann was not named in the filing at all. The company received $3.5 million in financing from TREW Capital to ensure uninterrupted operations of its locations while navigating its bankruptcy process.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
