Will Gino's East Buy Giordano's? What Does This Mean For Chicago Pizza?

Giordano's pizza chain filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in Chicago back in February. According to an article in Nation's Restaurant News bids are being made to buy Giordano's assets.

Giordano's was founded in 1974 and has 47 locations in Illinois and Florida. It was founded by two brothers and the chain was sold in 1988 to the owners who are now filing bankruptcy.

According to the article, interested parties are bidding on, 10 locations, 5 that are company owned and 5 joint-venture locations. Franchise agreements for an additional 40 restaurants. There are also pieces of real estate that would be included.

For the right investor this could be an amazing opportunity. Nation's Restaurant News reported that one of the bidders may be deep-dish pizza chain Gino's East.

Giordano's and Gino's East have long been competitors in the Chicago pizza business for more than 40 years. But what does this mean for Giordano's pizza lovers?

Gino's East is owned by a much larger company, Bravo Restaurants Inc. Should Gino's be the high bidder and retain Giordano's Nation's Restaurant News is spectulating that they would not turn all the Giordano's locations into Gino's East locations. They are likely to keep them all Giordano's but retain ownership. This is because Gino's East already has 3 Chicago locations and further saturating the area with Gino's locations may not be a good business strategy.

Another possibility is that individual investors would buy the locations and turn them into separate restaurants. It is probably prefferable by the trustee to liquidate the assets in a larger group if possible and Gino's East would offer that solution.

The process of selling Giordano's assets is called liquidation. When filing bankruptcy in Chicago your assets are liquidated to pay off your creditors before being discharged of the remaining debts. For an individual, you would face liquidation when filing chapter 7 in Chicago.

The future of Giordano's is still up in the air. It is clear that their Chicago banruptcy lawyers did all they could to try and save the company. Now it will be liquidated and either fall into new ownership or become a new restaurant.

Chang and Carlin
The content found on the Chang & Carlin site is not legal advice and is purely for informational purposes. The information contained herein is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you are interested in obtaining information about chapter 7 bankruptcy, chapter 13 bankruptcy, foreclosure services, real estate legal services, you are encouraged to call our law firm at 866-790-8601 Request a Free Legal Evaluation. Chang and Carlin serves clients in Chicago, Schaumburg, Joliet, Warrenville, Waukegan, Illinois.