Burger King franchise purchase nears closure
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
The operator of Hawai'i's KFC restaurants was expected to complete its purchase of 16 local Burger King restaurants last night or today as part of a deal approved by a California bankruptcy court last week.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Zubair Kazi of California-based Kazi Foods Inc. had offered to pay roughly $2.6 million for 14 to 20 Hawai'i Burger King stores from Cimm's Inc., a Glendale, Calif.-based Burger King franchisee that filed for Chapter 11 last July.
The Burger King restaurant at 1056 S. Beretania St. is one of 16 local stores being bought by Kazi Foods Inc.
Details of the purchase, which included several options, are scheduled to be announced tomorrow, according to representatives of Kazi Foods and Cimm's.
In its original offer, Kazi Foods said it would spend $1 million on store operating expenses, maintain the restaurants as Burger Kings, and hire "all or substantially all" the employees currently working at the restaurants.
The Waikiki Burger King restaurant was excluded from the deal, and the future of the remaining half dozen or so other Cimm's Burger King restaurants in Hawai'i was unclear yesterday.
Kazi Foods is the nation's second-largest KFC franchisee, with 159 KFC restaurants, including 27 in Hawai'i. Kazi bought his first KFC outlet in 1976 and became popular with KFC Corp. executives for turning around money-losing stores on the Mainland. Kazi entered the Hawai'i market in 1997 when he acquired 29 restaurants from KFC Corp.
Cimm's has been a Burger King franchisee since 1976, and in 1995 bought 25 Hawai'i stores from Japan-based Royal Co., which reported losing $77.5 million on the franchise over 10 years.
