NPC International Sells 1,150 Pizza Hut, Wendy’s locations to Flynn Restaurant Group Following Bankruptcy

NPC International, a franchisee of Pizza Hut and Wendy’s, will sell at least 1,150 stores to Flynn Restaurant Group for $801 million following NPC’s bankruptcy this summer.

The deal comes after Wendy’s initially objected to the sale, saying that Flynn Restaurant Group’s holdings of Arby’s and Panera Bread stores put it in direct competition with the QSR burger brand. 

A statement from NPC on Friday makes it clear the issue was resolved in mediation. 

Flynn Restaurant Group will acquire at least 925 of NPC’s Pizza Hut restaurants and 225 of the company’s approximately 383 Wendy’s, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. 

“This is an excellent outcome for NPC’s Wendy’s restaurants and our team,” Carl Hauch, CEO and president of NPC’s Wendy’s division said in the statement. “We are very pleased that our restaurants will be joining the ranks of established, high performing restaurant franchise groups.”

The sale will turn Flynn Restaurant Group into a franchising juggernaut with $4 billion in annual sales, Restaurant Business Online estimated.

NPC’s bankruptcy puts it in good company among 110,000 restaurants that have closed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Franchise brands have fared better than independent concepts, and QSR and pizza sales have both individually boomed, but NPC actually went bankrupt in spite of a pandemic-induced sales bump, as it suffered from years of weak sales and a massive debt load of more than $903 million. 

1851 Franchise reached out to NPC International and Flynn Restaurant Group for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.