:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/hooters-101-birthday-tout-011624-01079a1c1970410fab90f508d1484071.jpg)
NEED TO KNOW
- Hooters of America filed for Chapter 11 protections in March to address its $376 million debt, Newsweek reported
- According to Newsweek, on Tuesday, Oct. 14, Hooters Inc., the organization which opened the first Hooters restaurant in 1983, announced that it finanized its acquisition of Hooters of America
- Hooters original founders are leading a $40 million deal to acquire 111 Hooters locations out of bankruptcy
It’s always good to remember your roots.
For the founders of Hooters, that is exactly what they have done to save the restaurant chain from bankrupty.
According to Newsweek, on Tuesday, Oct. 14, Hooters Inc., the organization which opened the first Hooters restaurant in 1983, announced that it finanized its acquisition of Hooters of America, the company which owns and operates over a hundred restaurants in the U.S.
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty
Hooters of America filed for Chapter 11 protections in March to address its $376 million debt, Newsweek reported.
The proposed new future for Hooters comes out of a result of Neil Kiefer, 73, CEO of the Original Hooters Founders Group calling up members of the original group of founders, Gil DiGiannantonio, 77, Edward Droste, 74, and Dennis Johnson, 74, to develop a plan of action.
The group joked in the early days of the restaurant chain that should open a place that “they couldn’t get kicked out of,” per Forbes.
“It added to the lore,” Kiefer told the outlet.
The group are friends are leading a $40 million deal to acquire 111 Hooters locations out of bankruptcy.
Kiefer told Forbes that he and his friends made this decision after some “soul searching” explaining “we don’t want to leave the Hooters world in the condition it is in. We have a moral obligation.”
Hooters/Instagram
“This is our baby,” DiGiannantonio told the outlet. “To see it go down the toilet, it broke our hearts. And it was embarrassing to go to the country club or the grocery store and hear, ‘Hey, I hear you guys are filing bankruptcy.’ That’s all we kept on hearing. I’d say, ‘Well, it’s not really us.’ ”
With the takeover, Hooters patrons will notice “immediate” changes to is restaurants including “fresher quality ingredients” and a “cleaner menu,” reported Newsweek. Its female servers are also expect to return to wearing the “original uniforms,” according the outlet.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“It’s not a guaranteed slam dunk,” Kiefer told Forbes. “We have to win customers back, and that’s not going to happen overnight just because the court says, Okay, take it over.”