Portland, OR - The local franchisee of Boston Chicken Inc. said it has closed its 56 Boston Market restaurants in Washington, Oregon and Idaho and laid off 900 workers.
The restaurants were closed, the franchisee, BC Northwest LP, said in a statement. Boston Chicken filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week after a series of losses and amid heavy debts. In Chapter 11 a company is protected from creditors as it tries to work out a plan to pay its debts.
"With the announcement by Boston Chicken that it was no longer able to provide financial assistance to BC Northwest, BC Northwest determined that the continued operation of these restaurants was impossible unless additional sources of financing were available," BC Northwest said.
The company was unable to obtain financing from other sources, BC Northwest said.
BC Northwest said 36 restaurants in Washington, 17 restaurants in Oregon and 3 restaurants in Idaho were closed, adding it would provide job search assistance for affected employees.
BC Northwest became a franchisee of Boston Chicken in 1994, opening its first restaurant in the same year.
Boston Chicken said separately that the closing of the restaurants will not affect the remaining 900 restaurants or 18,500 employees in the chain.
"As we said publicly last week, it was our hope that BC Northwest would continue to operate its restaurants, but as an independent and separate company, BC Northwest had to make that decision," Boston Chicken Chairman J. Michael Jenkins said.
"It is unfortunate that for the time being, there will be no Boston Market restaurants in those markets," he said.
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