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Krystal to be bought out of bankruptcy by Fortress Investment Group for $27 millionKrystal to be bought out of bankruptcy by Fortress Investment Group for $27 million

New York-based firm to assume $21.5 million in debt while taking over corporate restaurants

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

May 14, 2020

2 Min Read
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The Krystal Company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, has found a buyer, according to court documents filed Wednesday. DB KRST Investors LLC, an affiliate of one of Krystal’s major creditors, Fortress Investment Group LLC, is buying the quick-service burger chain based in Dunwoody, Ga., for $27 million and will assume $21.5 million in debt. It was the only bidder.

Judge Paul Bonapfel of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta said he would approve the deal that was struck last week to sell Krystal’s corporate units, which comprise about 70% of the system, according to Nation’s Restaurant News Top 200 data. As of last year the chain had 205 corporate location and 105 franchises.       

The deal is expected to close next week.

Krystal, which has a cult following, particularly in the Southeast, is being sold by its current owner, Argonne Capital Group LLC, based in Atlanta. It kept the restaurants open after filing for bankruptcy protection in January, and has kept them open for takeout and delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the time of its bankruptcy filing in January, Krystal president Tim Ward said the action was taken to “enable Krystal to establish a stronger business for the future.”

At the same time the company had also filed several motions to authorize it to continue to operate its business, including paying employee wages and benefits, honor customer programs and pay for its utility services.

Related:Krystal burger restaurant chain files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Last October, Krystal said it planned to refranchise most of its company-owned stores and had hired investment banking firm The Cypress Group to manage that initiative in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee, and that it had signed its first new franchisees since 2005.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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