More than thirty Hardee's restaurants have closed across Georgia in recent weeks after one of the brand's largest franchisees got into a legal dispute with franchisor CKE Restaurants. ARC Burger, the franchisee behind the closures, previously operated 77 Hardee's restaurants across eight states.
Georgia and its 34 locations was ARC's largest market by unit count.
ARC was formed in 2023 when High Bluff Capital Partners purchased 81 Hardee's from Summit Restaurant Holdings, a Boulder, Colorado-based firm that was once the second largest franchisee in the CKE system. ToNeTo Atlanta readers will recall Summit closed fourteen locations across Georgia in April 2023 before declaring bankruptcy the following month.
The legal dispute reportedly centered on missed franchisee payments, which is rather ironic when you consider that High Bluff themselves is the franchisor behind Quiznos and Church's Chicken (yes they still exist and are each attempting a comeback).
Related: Struggling Hardee's is in a dispute with one of its biggest franchisees
CKE is owned by Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital, which controls more than four dozen franchise brands including Dunkin', Moe's Southwest Grill, Jimmy John's, Dave's Hot Chicken, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Subway, and Sonic.
CKE, which includes not only Hardee's, but fellow quick-serve burger eatery Carl's Jr., too, moved its headquarters from Anaheim and St. Louis to Franklin, Tennessee in 2018. (Rival burger chain In-N-Out made a similar move earlier this year). Tennessee and its 143 locations is the chain's second largest market by unit count behind only the company's founding market of North Carolina and its 200 units.
The Hardee's website suggests the brand has 90 units in Georgia but more than thirty that it still lists are in fact closed as part of the ARC closure. Interestingly, three of the thirty five units that closed in Georgia have been removed from the Hardee's corporate website and marked "permanently closed" on Google, whereas the others are listed only as "temporarily closed" on both Google and the Hardee's website.
The 35 Hardee's ARC Burger previously operated in Georgia are as follows:
2516 Bouldercrest Road, Atlanta
1520 Buford Highway, Buford
1375 South Park Street, Carrollton
231 Temple Avenue, Newnan
515 Alabama Avenue, Bremen
2154 Franklin Parkway, Franklin
101 Princeton Avenue, Adairsville
44 Homer Road, Commerce
1204 Turner McCall Boulevard, Rome
3110 Cedartown Highway, Rome
2284 Highway 41, Calhoun
182 Keys Ferry Road, McDonough
1575 Highway 20 W, McDonough
5259 Stone Mountain Highway, Stone Mountain
4538 Oakwood Road, Oakwood
603 S. Valdosta Road, Lakeland
1729 1st Avenue, Moultrie
1440 Remington Avenue, Thomasville
2901 N. Ashley Street, Valdosta
341 Broad Street, Hawkinsville
99 Sandy Run Road, Bonaire
2829 Watson Boulevard, Warner Robins
242 Highway 49, Byron
195 Walmart Circle, Sandersville
260 Lee Street, Forsyth
624 N. Church Street, Thomaston
1619 N. Expressway, Griffin
975 Glynn Street N., Fayetteville
125 W. Maple Street, Cumming
350 General Daniels Avenue N., Danielsville
1031 Franklin Spring Street, Royston
1208 Industrial Boulevard, East Ellijay
3112 Highway 278, Covington (This location was a Hardee's starting in 1983, became a Popeyes in the mid 2000s and reopened as a Hardee's for a second time in late 2012.)
816 S. Patterson Street, Valdosta (Marked permanently closed)
318 S. Virginia Avenue, Tifton (Marked permanently closed)
315 S. Broad Street, Monroe (Marked permanently closed)
The Hardee's website claims that there are 1,000 Hardee's restaurants nationwide, but that number seems at least slightly inflated as all ARC units are included in that count.
In 1997, when then Carl's Jr. owner CKE Restaurants purchased Hardee's, Carl's Jr. had 676 restaurants compared to Hardee's and its 3,422.
Today the Carl's Jr. website indicates that there are 1,000 units with more than 60% of those (624) in the chain's founding market of California.
Judging from comments posted to our social channels after we shared a reel of the closed Hardee's in Buford, many consumers still have sentimental memories of Hardee's and also view them as offering of one of the best fast food breakfasts around.
It remains to be seen when or if any of the "temporarily closed" units will reopen, but in the meantime the Hardee's at 6671 Roswell Road in Sandy Springs is owned by another franchisee and remains open to supply metro Atlantans' Hardee's fix.
If the locations don't reopen, it will be interesting to see what replaces them. In years past Hardee's has had several high profile locations close around metro Atlanta including those on Piedmont Road in Buckhead and East Trinity Place in both of which were converted to Chick-fil-A restaurants.
Are you surprised to see Hardee's struggling? What is your favorite fast food breakfast? What would you like to see open in place of your local Hardee's?
Please share your thoughts below.
1 comment:
I still remember the longtime Hardees in downtown Alpharetta. It was replaced by a Surcheros Mexican, which surprisingly is still open.
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